Opinion. Anna Lee Mraz Bartra. Peninsula 360 Press [P360P].
The road paved so that today an Afro-Asian-American woman and daughter of immigrants, Kamala Harris, could be sworn in as vice president of the United States, was a road paved with sweat, tears and blood; the product of a centennial, trans-generational struggle of thousands -millions- of women who, step by step, were blazing the trail.
"Neither the states of the United States nor the Federal government can deny a citizen the right to vote because of his or her sex," officially states the Nineteenth Amendment to the Constitution that was achieved one hundred years ago, on August 26, 1920.
On the road to equality, many women were arrested, booed, persecuted and judged by society. The movement, led by women, achieved the right to vote.
It should be recalled, however, that until 1965 black people, low-income women and men, were denied this basic right as a matter of race.
While until recently it was said that women were not considered qualified to hold political office, today things seem to be changing. A lawyer, of Indian descent, a Baptist, married to a Jew, Harris makes clear not only her leadership and political skills that have propelled her to the position she is in today, but she is opening gaps for those who come after her.
I have always thought that it is not because she is a woman that a woman in a position of power will look out for women's rights. The same is true of blackness, migration, poverty and other conditions of social disadvantage or vulnerability. Those who are able to step outside the structure from which they come can turn their backs on their peers and, worse, shut them out. There are plenty of examples of women who, in the past and present, have ridden the violet wave, standard bearers of feminism, only to turn around at the first opportunity and leave their peers stuck under the patriarchal yoke.
However, Harris possibly recognizes the women's struggle as her struggle as well:
"A big part of the reason I wanted to be a prosecutor was to protect people like her [her best friend who had been abused by her own father] and change the system. In fact, a big part of my career has been to protect women and children?
Kamala Harris
Harris not only breaks new ground politically, but also in the way she decided to lead her personal life as a second wife, without biological children and stepmother. Not having children, whether by choice or possibility, does not make you less of a woman and therefore is another feminist baton today, because throughout history that role has been imposed on women.
That Kamala Harris was sworn in today in front of the Capitol, a building that just last week was flooded with a wave of hate and white supremacists scared to death of losing the privileges they hold, is a victory. And victories are proof that the struggle that has been going on for a hundred years is worth something.
But this is no time to rest on our laurels, unfortunately the road that got Harris to the White House is still a dirt road and not enough women, not enough black women, and certainly not enough black women are coming after her. The fight is not over.
"This doesn't reconcile our past, but it gives us hope for the future," said Catherine Flowers, a prominent environmental justice advocate from Alabama, who confessed that tears welled up in her eyes when Biden announced his running mate. "Black women have sustained the civil rights movement and the Democratic Party for decades, but we have rarely received any credit."
Catherine Flowers
It is a complex war, with an uncertain horizon and unequal trenches in each country and in each sphere, which women have been fighting for centuries on at least three different fronts: power, identity and talent.
There is nothing left to do but to continue to forge ahead and support women like Harris so that, as she said in her words:
"Although I may be the first woman in this office, I will not be the last," the vice president-elect said in her first address to the nation.
Kamala Harris
