Playing the Woman Card

By Anodea Judith

In the entire history of the United States, there has never been a woman president. In those 248 years of unbroken masculine rule, women have only had the right to vote since 1920 – less than half that time. Even today, the U.S. Congress is only 26% women, and Kamala Harris is the first woman (as well as Black and South Asian) to hold the office of Vice President.

Yet, Harris is not playing the “Woman Card” in her bid for the presidency. Yes, she is a champion of women’s abortion rights, but she is not making the point that it is high time for a woman to take charge. Why not?

Because in the face of our predominant cultural values, womanhood is still seen as more liability than asset. But it shouldn’t be that way.

The New York Times recently ran an excellent article by Susan Faludi, about the importance of seeing the Commander in Chief as a “protector.” Faludi argues that men in particular, whose role as protector goes back millennia, have trouble seeing a woman as their protector. This is not a conscious, rational decision, but goes back to ancestral roots, where protection was based on physical strength and considered a male role. This may explain the puzzling reluctance of Black men to vote for Harris. Can a woman be their protector?

Never mind that Harris has proven herself as a tough prosecutor, bringing corrupt individuals to justice many times over. To convince the public of her “masculine” strength, Harris talks about having a gun in her home and not being afraid to use it. She talks about having the toughest military in the world. She has to pick a VP that is a “man’s man,” then use sports and hunting metaphors to prove she’s got the masculine base covered.

Deep in the collective psyche lies an unconscious sense that a woman can’t lead, as evidenced in repeated statements made about Hillary Clinton and again about Kamala Harris: “I don’t know, there’s just something I can’t quite get behind ...”

What if the feminine approach is exactly what we need right now? What if Harris spoke openly about the need for gender balance in government, for a Partnership society, for the many ways in which women bring peace, social justice, and a holistic perspective that transcends the dueling dualities of either/or, black and white, even Republican and Democrat.

Harris talks about going to the future not the past. What if she claimed that our future needs to be more feminine, and espoused all the glories of love, beauty and equality that matriarchal principles entail? What if she were to step out of the patriarchal box, eschew her standard male suit, and speak to us from the archetypal leadership of the feminine? Would something dormant awaken in us that we’ve been longing for? Would female leadership suddenly make more sense and offer us a truly world-shifting vantage point?

Harris is up against the old-boy’s network, a snake pit of domination, deceit, and a quest to hold onto power at any cost. Patriarchy and white privilege are deeply established and therefore familiar, even though feared, archaic, and dangerous for our collective future.

The feminine has always represented mystery. Women, having been kept out of politics, are ever more the face of the unknown and untested, not to mention the perceived threat to male dominance. In times of uncertainty, the unknown is a scary place in which to place our faith, so many people would rather stick with what they know, even if it represents the basest of human decency, lies, and corruption.

We’ve seen where that path of patriarchy leads – down the road of our destruction.

It’s time for a new way. It’s time to play the Woman Card and play it strong. Female leaders like Kamala Harris are precisely what we need right now.

Posted by Anodea Judith - 10/23/2024