| | | | | |  | | By Elizabeth Ralph | Presented by the Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation | | | | The symbolic importance of Kamala Harris' win as the first female, first Black and first Indian American VP is undeniable. But just as important is what it could mean in concrete terms for the country. POLITICO Magazine asked a group of political observers, analysts and cultural figures to project how Harris is likely to change things for America in the job. You can read the full forum here, but here are some highlights: -- 'I would like to see her doing things that are clearly and specifically for and about Black Americans. For example, Harris would be uniquely positioned to be effective in any attempt to re-imagine this nation's criminal justice system. That would start with making her central to the selection of the Biden administration's attorney general. It would continue with having her draw on her experience as a prosecutor and state attorney general to be the leading voice in any efforts to reform policing and law enforcement that may come from the White House." —Keneshia Grant is a professor of political science at Howard University - - "She should assemble her own foreign policy team, as Biden did when he was vice president, to complement the president's advisers but also to develop her own ideas and trade on her unique strengths as the face of America abroad. The United States will need to play a very different global role in the 21st century than in the 20th; Harris can be a catalyst for much of that rethinking." —Anne-Marie Slaughter is the CEO of New America. -- She could take the lead managing "the coronavirus pandemic. … Health care is an issue on which women politicians tend to devote more attention than do men. U.S. congresswomen are more likely than U.S. congressmen to talk about health care in congressional debates by a large margin. Around the world, countries with more women in office tend to spend more on public health, and many female leaders have been praised for their coronavirus responses in their countries (New Zealand, Germany, Finland). Given that health care is an issue that women tend to 'own,' giving Harris a leading role here may give Americans some needed confidence in our national response." —Amanda Clayton is a professor of political science at Vanderbilt University. Happy Friday, and welcome back to Women Rule. Thanks to Maya Parthasarathy for keeping an eye out for excellent clips each week. Want to see more of something in the newsletter? Want less? Send us your questions, comments and feedback at womenrule@politico.com. | | A message from the Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation: The Kauffman Foundation believes true equity and inclusion will only come from the systems we rebuild better. That means supporting entrepreneurs of color, women, and those in rural areas. Learn more: kauffman.org/better | | | ICYMI -- I had a great time moderating Women Rule's post-election roundtable this week, with guests Congresswoman-elect Ashley Hinson of Iowa; Shaniqua McClendon, political director of Crooked Media; Patti Russo , executive director of the Campaign School at Yale University; and Micah Yousefi, political and policy director at Winning for Women, a group supporting conservative women running for office. We talked about the big gains Republican women made in the House, how Black and Latina organizers flipped states this year, what it takes to run for office and how both parties can elevate more women. Watch the conversation here BEING FIRST -- "Here's What Kamala Harris Faces as a 'First,'" by Teresa Wiltz: "So many firsts. First woman. First Black vice president. First Black woman vice president. First South Asian American. First South Asian American woman. First VP whose parents come from India and Jamaica. First VP who counts Prince and Bootsy and hip-hop among her musical loves. First VP who's a stepmom. ... "But in this moment, she's also joining an equally exclusive club of first-evers, women of color who aimed their stilettos — or Chucks — at glass ceilings and kicked. In the past few decades, America has seen a cavalcade of firsts: the first Black woman in the Senate, the first Latina Supreme Court justice, the first Black woman Ivy League university president. … And in the House, we've also seen a litany of women serving as the first: an American Indian woman elected to Congress, an Indian immigrant, two Muslim women, a Haitian American. "The roads these other 'firsts' traveled in American politics offer some lessons for Harris, suggesting that sense of triumph should be tempered with caution. In interviews with other 'firsts' and in the analysis of historians, they suggest the path for Harris will be unpredictable, at best. Their accounts, and their biographies, speak to a truth about America familiar to many women of color: When you assume power, there are high expectations. You become, effectively, a one-woman band with a mandate to defy all the low expectations of you, your race and your gender. "'[It's been said] you can always tell a pioneer by the arrows in your back,' said former Sen. Carol Moseley Braun (D-Ill.). 'There were a lot of arrows I hadn't anticipated. At the same time, it was really a life-changing thing for me.'" POLITICO Magazine -- "Women and LGBTQ+ voters celebrate Harris' win," via The 19th ... "Today, I'm Moved by Kamala," via The Cut BIDEN WHITE HOUSE WATCH -- "First professor: Jill Biden to make history as a first lady with a day job," by Nicole Gaudiano: "Jill Biden would scramble into cocktail dresses in a bathroom at Northern Virginia Community College before rushing to White House receptions when her husband was vice president. She graded papers at night in a tiny nook on Air Force Two. Her Secret Service agents dressed like college students and carried backpacks to blend in when she was on campus. "Now 'Dr. B,' as her students call her, plans to continue teaching English and writing at the college when she moves into the White House in January. She will be the first president's wife to continue her professional career as first lady, after becoming the first second lady to do so. She will also be part of a small group of union members to hold the title, including Eleanor Roosevelt and Nancy Reagan." "For Biden, 69, roles as a top White House figure and an educator will be intertwined, just as they were during her time as second lady, as she recalled in her memoir. A member of the National Education Association, she is a natural emissary to the teachers unions that aggressively supported President-elect Joe Biden's bid for president after four years of battling the Trump administration and prior tension with the Obama administration over academic standards, charter schools and testing." POLITICO -- "Biden's transition team brings in diverse coalition of experts, at least half of whom are women," via The 19th … "Biden unveils COVID-19 task force that is 38% female and 69% underrepresented minority," via Fortune … "Joe Biden is the first president-elect to mention the transgender community in a victory speech," via The Lily -- "'I've been very, very loyal': Marcia Fudge makes the case for Ag secretary," via POLITICO TALKER TWEET --
|  | THE TRUMP ADMINISTRATION -- Playbook reports that when it comes to the new federal budget, the Trump White House seems to have a few priorities of its own. There is talk of a desire for Congress to codify the Women's Global Development Program, or W-GDP, which seeks to boost the economic fortunes of women in the developing world. But, according to Playbook , "It's tough to see where that lands here, and who exactly would be pushing for it that has any juice." -- "A little-known Trump appointee is in charge of handing transition resources to Biden — and she isn't budging," by Lisa Rein, Jonathan O'Connell and Josh Dawsey: "The administrator of the General Services Administration, the low-profile agency in charge of federal buildings, has a little-known role when a new president is elected: to sign paperwork officially turning over millions of dollars, as well as give access to government officials, office space in agencies and equipment authorized for the taxpayer-funded transition teams of the winner. It amounts to a formal declaration by the federal government, outside of the media, of the winner of the presidential race. "But by Sunday evening, almost 36 hours after media outlets projected Biden as the winner, GSA Administrator Emily Murphy had written no such letter. And the Trump administration, in keeping with the president's failure to concede the election, has no immediate plans to sign one. This could lead to the first transition delay in modern history, except in 2000, when the Supreme Court decided a recount dispute between Al Gore and George W. Bush in December." WaPo |  PHOTO OF THE WEEK: Saturday, Sen. Kamala Harris took the stage at the Chase Center in Wilmington, Delaware, as vice president-elect after the race was called for Joe Biden that morning. Among other firsts, Harris will be the first woman to be vice president of the United States. | Getty Images | | | | PARTY POLITICS -- "Democrats Have a Republican-Women Problem," by Elaine Godfrey: "For Democratic women, Trump's presidency has been a catalyst for political activism, triggering a renaissance of American civic engagement. But for some Republican women, the past four years have prompted a different kind of reckoning: They've watched as the conservative lawmakers they've long admired have betrayed principles once held dear. And they've been forced to rethink their hardwired partisan allegiances. "'There is a political realignment occurring with [these] voters in the suburbs, where low taxes aren't enough to keep them in the Republican Party,' Sarah Longwell, a Republican strategist who studies suburban women, told me. Even in a post-Trump era, it will be difficult — maybe even impossible — for the GOP to regain their trust. But Joe Biden's presidency will offer another test too: Is there enough room for these women in the Democratic tent?" The Atlantic -- "Elissa Slotkin Braces for a Democratic Civil War," by Tim Alberta POLITICO -- "Ronna McDaniel expected to stay on as RNC chair," via POLITICO ... "D.C.'s electoral votes will all be cast by women — including this Howard University graduate," via WaPo ... "Pelosi floats above Democrats' civil war," via POLITICO AROUND THE WORLD -- "Afghan woman shot, blinded, for getting a job," via Reuters ... "Myanmar Election Delivers Another Decisive Win for Aung San Suu Kyi," via NYT IN DEFENSE NEWS -- "Naval Academy names its first Black female brigade commander," via WaPo IMMIGRATION WATCH -- "U.S. deports migrant women who alleged abuse by Georgia doctor," by Nomaan Merchant: "The Trump administration is trying to deport several women who allege they were mistreated by a Georgia gynecologist at an immigration detention center, according to their lawyers. U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement has already deported six former patients who complained about Dr. Mahendra Amin, who has been accused of operating on migrant women without their consent or performing procedures that were medically unnecessary and potentially endangered their ability to have children. At least seven others at the Irwin County Detention Center in Ocilla, Georgia, who had made allegations against the doctor have received word that they could soon be removed from the country, the lawyers said. ... "[The women's] stories fit a broader pattern of allegations made by detained women against Amin, some of them revealed in interviews with attorneys and medical records reviewed by The Associated Press. But there hasn't been evidence to support an initial claim that he performed a large number of hysterectomies. The Department of Justice has opened a criminal investigation, and the Department of Homeland Security's inspector general also is investigating." AP OUTDOORS -- "A Record-Setting Ascent of El Capitan: Emily Harrington is the first woman to free-climb the Golden Gate route up El Capitan, a 3,000-foot-high monolith in Yosemite National Park, in under 24 hours," via NYT BOOK CLUB -- "The 'Detective Work' Behind a War Novel," via NYT ... "A Dystopian Novel That Challenges Taboos and Refuses Judgment," via The Atlantic IN MEMORIAM -- "The Undying Voice of Diane di Prima," via The New Yorker | | | |   | | | UPDATING THE OUTDATED -- "Oxford dictionaries change 'sexist' and outdated definitions of the word 'woman,'" by Christina Zdanowicz: "Even the dictionary can be sexist and out of date, especially when it comes to how a 'woman' is described. Earlier this year, Oxford University Press changed its entry for 'woman' in its dictionaries, including the Oxford English Dictionary, to include more positive ways to describe a female. 'We have expanded the dictionary coverage of "woman" with more examples and idiomatic phrases which depict women in a positive and active manner,' according to a statement from OUP. 'We have ensured that offensive synonyms or senses are clearly labelled as such and only included where we have evidence of real world usage.' "Phrases such as 'woman of the moment' were added to equal the old saying of the 'man of the moment.' And one of the definitions of 'woman' now refers to a 'person's wife, girlfriend, or female lover,' as opposed to being tied to only a man. The definition for 'man' was updated to include gender-neutral terms and references to 'sexual attractiveness or activity' were revised for 'man' and 'woman' entries. OUP said its lexicographers regularly review entries to make sure they are accurate. This time around, the voice of the people helped create change, an OUP spokeswoman told CNN in an email Monday." CNN WE ROLLED OUR EYES -- "Women Are Sharing The Mind-Numbingly Sexist Things Men Have Said To Them," via BuzzFeed ... "A Brief History of Menstrual 'His'-teria," via The New Yorker POP CULTURE -- "Why I Love Women Who Wallop," by Manohla Dargis: "Like many women, I have spent a lot of time thinking about how to move through the world. How to walk with confidence but not too much swing. How to stand with my shoulders back without sticking out my chest. How to smile, like a nice girl. How to cross my legs, like a lady. How to speak up, within reason. How to take up space but not too much. Yet I love watching women who take up space, who swagger and sometimes wildly crash. "When I caught up with 'Harley Quinn: Birds of Prey' in February, I grooved on an entire world populated by women taking up space with grins and seriously bad attitude. The movie had opened a few weeks earlier but had done soft business, and I saw it at a second-run theater. I didn't expect much, yet I enjoyed its silliness and unremitting action. I dug how Margot Robbie's Harley Quinn — a Mad Hatter of a heroine — pinwheeled across the screen, slicing and dicing and tossing confetti while having dirty good fun. I'd seen women in action, but the exuberance here felt different." NYT -- "How to Tell the Story of a Cult," via The Atlantic ... "Empress Of Didn't Start a Record Label Just for Herself (But Owning One's a Nice Perk)," via Vulture SPOTLIGHT -- "Kimberlé Crenshaw: the woman who revolutionised feminism — and landed at the heart of the culture wars," by Aamna Mohdin: "For Crenshaw, who is now one of the most influential black feminist legal theorists in the US, [Anita] Hill's case cemented her idea of 'intersectionality', set out in a paper two years before the [Clarence Thomas] hearing. The idea suggests that different forms of discrimination — such as sexism and racism — can overlap and compound each other in just this way. At the time of Hill's case, Crenshaw was writing another paper, Mapping the Margins, on the erasure of black women's history of being sexually harassed and abused. The Hill case showed the result of the fact that sexual harassment had largely only been discussed in relation to white women. ... "In the 30 years since Crenshaw first wrote about intersectionality, the term has swept to the forefront of conversations about feminism and racial justice. It is used by activists, in HR training in some of the world's largest corporations — and is at the heart of the rightwing backlash against identity politics. At the end of October, the term critical race theory was spoken in the UK parliament for the first time, when Kemi Badenoch, the equalities minister, announced the government was 'unequivocally against' fundamental parts of the concept. In some ways, Crenshaw is excited by the high profile her theories have gained, even if they are being condemned: 'It is far better that is circulating and being used than if only 25 law professors have read it.'" The Guardian VIDEO -- Digging into the House Dems fight and what it means for a Biden administration | 
| | | | | | A message from the Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation: Too many entrepreneurs face overwhelming barriers to start a business. Women entrepreneurs are less likely to secure funding than men when pitching the same business and are less likely to apply for bank loans. Black entrepreneurs' loan requests are three times less likely to be approved than white entrepreneurs.
It is time to rebuild better. The Kauffman Foundation works to make sure all people, regardless of their race, gender, or geography can share in America's prosperity by gaining the access and skills they need to succeed in a career or start a business.
That means supporting entrepreneurs of color, women, and those in rural areas. It's making sure students have the opportunity to learn through real world experiences. It's encouraging policymakers to prioritize our small businesses.
Learn more: kauffman.org/better | | | WISDOM OF THE WEEK -- Kate O'Malley, CEO of K.O. Strategies, former legislative assistant to U.S. Senator Barbara Boxer (D-CA), strategic communications specialist and Women in Government Relations 2020 Excellence in Advocacy for a State Issue Campaign Awardee: "Success has many definitions. Think about what success looks like to you — personally and professionally — and let that guide and inspire you. Don't worry about living up to someone else's definition of success. There is no one 'right way' to build your career or live your life. Learn from every experience — the defeats as well as the victories. Even when you fall on your face, you're moving forward! Don't let anyone try to minimize your accomplishments — claim them and celebrate them. Be authentic (no one does you better than you), hone your skills and have confidence in yourself." Connect with Kate here | | | | POLITICO Magazine Justice Reform: The Prison Conditions Issue, presented by Verizon: The Covid-19 pandemic has highlighted the difference between "inside" and the rest of society. With overcrowding, inadequate funding, and uneven medical care, prisons have become hotbeds of the outbreak - with substantial costs on the outside. POLITICO Magazine's latest Justice Reform package looks at movements to improve prisons and how the epidemic has affected them. READ THE FULL ISSUE. | | | | | | | | | Follow us on Twitter | | | | Follow us | | | | |
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