Elections
Vice President Kamala Harris has secured the Democratic nomination for president, becoming the first woman of color to win a major party’s nomination and officially setting up her matchup against former President Donald J. Trump.
Ms. Harris, 59, earned the support of 99 percent of the 4,567 delegates who cast ballots, the Democratic National Committee said in a statement late Monday. In an unusual move meant to avoid potential legal headaches, the roll call was held virtually over five days, instead of in-person at the Democratic National Convention, which begins on Aug. 19 in Chicago.
The convention’s secretary, Jason Rae, must certify the results of the roll call before Ms. Harris and her soon-to-be-announced running mate accept the nomination.
“Vice President Harris has historic momentum at her back as we embark on the final steps in officially certifying her as our party’s nominee,” Jaime Harrison, the D.N.C. chair, and Minyon Moore, the convention chair, said in a statement.
Ms. Harris, whose mother was an immigrant from India and whose father is from Jamaica, would be the first Black woman and first person of South Asian heritage to hold the office. Ms. Harris landed at the top of her party’s ticket after President Biden withdrew from the race on July 21 under pressure from his party and cleared a path for Ms. Harris’s ascent.
Read here the full article published by The New York Times on 6 August 2024.
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Throughout the course of US presidential races, politicians have carefully chosen what names they go by. Bernie and Pete embraced their first names while Biden, Trump and Warren favored their last names. Some, like Nikki Haley, have used both.
As Kamala Harris sets her eyes on the presidency, she is using a combination. The vice president is running under the “Harris for President” slogan – a departure from the “Kamala Harris for the People” motto of her 2020 campaign – but is using her first name for social media accounts, including Kamala HQ on X, formerly Twitter.
There’s a solid science behind each choice, experts say. Candidates, in particular women, can use the psychological connotation of a first name to their advantage, to help them seem more likeable and accessible. But this psychology can also serve as a disadvantage, playing off implicit biases to portray a candidate as less qualified or confident.
A balancing act
The science comes together in a “balancing act for women,” according to Dr. Stav Atir, assistant professor in the Management and Human Resources Department at the University of Wisconsin School of Business, who has studied how gender affects the way we talk about professionals.
Atir was lead author of a study that found people were more than twice as likely to describe a male professional by surname in “high-status” fields, including politics. In the medical field, other research indicates that female physicians are more than twice as likely to be called by their first names instead of “doctor,” compared with their male counterparts.
This difference, the study found, can have real-life effects: People perceived those referred to by their surnames as superior and 14% more deserving of a career award, such as raising funding or being selected for a position.
Read here the full article published by CNN on 5 August 2024.
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Gender shouldn't matter when choosing a president — but after nearly 250 years of American democracy and zero women presidents, it clearly has.
The question isn't whether voters are ready for a female leader. Vice President Harris has already passed that milestone.
She has more than proved her integrity, leadership and effectiveness. Every time this sexist trope is used against Kamala Harris, voters see it for what it is — a cheap shot intended to keep her from shattering that last glass ceiling over the White House.
A better question is whether voters are ready to support that proven leader, stand behind her when she's viciously attacked, and be her allies on the campaign trail, and, once elected, in governing.
Women know they are "ready to lead, and leading" every day — there isn't a challenge they can't meet or an obstacle too daunting to tackle. And they know that to win in November, Harris will have to overcome centuries of sexism and decades of extremist politics that led to Donald Trump's rise and return.
To succeed as the first woman president, Harris must depend on a broad coalition of support, one built on shared values and fundamental rights, not partisan bickering.
Read here the full article published by the Times Free Press on 3 August 2024.
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While the number of women running for federal office has waned nationally, New Jersey is seeing more women run this election cycle, including a Latina who was one of just four in the country to launch a campaign for Senate, according to a Rutgers University-based political center.
After voters elected women to Congress in record-breaking numbers in the last three election cycles, the number of women candidates is now down in nearly every category, staff members of the Center for American Women and Politics told reporters Tuesday.
Debbie Walsh, the center’s director, said while 2024 won’t be a record-setting year, there are several milestones on the horizon for women. She called it “incredibly prescient” to speak about women in politics this week in light of the news that Vice President Kamala Harris has secured enough support from Democratic delegates that she will likely win the Democratic Party nomination for president next month.
Walsh noted Harris would be the first Black woman and first Asian-American person to win a major party’s nomination for president.
“Should she go on to win in November, she will shatter what Hillary Clinton coined the highest, hardest glass ceiling in American politics. Our research and programming has long been oriented towards changing the perception of power, and this transformative moment would forever alter how Americans view leadership in politics,” she said.
Read here the full article published by the New Jersey Monitor on 25 July 2024.
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Up to 63.8 percent of the 80 members of the newly elected Rwandan Chamber of Deputies, the lower house, are women, a list from the National Electoral Commission (NEC) has shown.
The new development represents an increase of women MPs, up from 61 percent in the previous parliament.
A 2021 report dubbed ‘Women in Parliament’ published by the Inter-Parliamentary Union showed that Rwanda was the world’s leading country in terms of having the largest number of women in government positions.
Besides the 63.8 percent of the country’s parliamentary seats being occupied by women, some 13 ministerial positions out of the available 32 in the current cabinet are occupied by women.
Among the women MPs in the new parliament are notable names that are making a comeback, including the outspoken Christine Bakundifite, who was a member of the Public Accounts Committee (PAC), which spearheads scrutiny of government entities and officials.
Two of her counterparts, Germaine Mukabalisa and Beline Uwineza, who were also PAC members in the previous parliament are also back, in addition to Madina Ndangiza who served as the Chairperson of the Commonwealth Women Parliamentarians (CWP) Africa Region.
Veneranda Uwamariya, a former University of Rwanda lecturer and local government official in Huye District is also back as well as Phoebe Kanyange, an experienced politician who previously served as spokesperson of the political parties’ forum.
Aside from the 24 seats reserved for women parliamentarians (who are elected through an electoral college system), 27 women who vied for the 53 remaining seats were also elected to the parliament.
Read here the full article published by The New Times on 26 July 2024.
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Shirley Chisholm, a Democratic congresswoman, was the first African American woman to run for president of the United States. Sixty years later, Kamala Harris will become the first Black and South Asian American woman to be nominated for president by a major party. Is the United States poised to elect her?
Chisholm, from Brooklyn, N.Y., first ran for office in 1964 — the year both Harris and I were born (the vice president on Oct. 20 and me on Oct. 30). When Chisholm began her presidential campaign in 1972, Harris and I were probably more focused on our toys and our friends, but I was fascinated by politics and aware of Congresswoman Chisholm.
For Black women of my generation, Black women political leaders were few and far between in the 1960s and ’70s, and the numbers remain below our percentage of the population.
Black women represent 7.7 per cent of the total U.S. population, according to the U.S. Census. The Center for American Women and Politics (CAWP) reports that 5.4 per cent of all voting members of Congress identify as Black women. Nonetheless, the situation has improved greatly compared to 1968, when Chisholm became the first Black woman elected to U.S. Congress.
Read here the full article published by The Conversation on 24 July 2024.
Image by The Conversation