For the second time in a few years, a woman candidate for the White House failed to be elected at the head of the world’s leading power after a campaign in which the issue of gender was a central element.
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Unlike Claudia Sheinbaum who established herself in Mexico as the first North American president a few weeks ago, Kamala Harris, like Hillary Clinton in 2016, stumbled on the last obstacle.
Campaigning for Kamala Harris, the former Secretary of State called on Americans to finally break “the highest, the most difficult of glass ceilings” by electing the Democratic candidate. In vain.
If these defeats are obviously due to the personality and popularity of their opponent, Donald Trump in both cases, for many observers, the question of misogyny in American society is also a factor.
Because Kamala Harris and Donald Trump have clearly shown radically opposing visions of the condition of women and their rights.
The Republican has in fact relied on virilist codes and his entire campaign was peppered with insulting or contemptuous comments towards women, coming from him or his political and media relays.
He was full of praise for strong leaders, he surrounded himself with combat sports champions and above all wanted to project an image of strength.
He presented himself as a “protector” of women, but assuring that he would protect them “whether (they) liked it or not”, and assiduously courted the electorate who, pell-mell, favored cryptocurrencies, MMA and considers that American society has sunk into “wokism”.
Donald Trump also described Kamala Harris as “mentally retarded” or “crazy” who would, if she became president, be “a toy” for other world leaders.
This traditional conception of the place of women has not had a repelling effect on part of the female electorate.
The Democrat herself did not openly campaign on the fact that she could become the first president of the United States.
But she relied heavily on famous women such as Beyoncé, Jennifer Lopez, Lady Gaga and Oprah Winfrey, betting that her message would even reach conservative voters.
She also supported women’s freedoms, in particular making the right to abortion one of the cornerstones of her campaign. But that apparently wasn’t enough to rally enough moderate conservative women, as she hoped.
During a campaign meeting, Michelle Obama denounced in a fiery speech the double standards in the treatment of the two candidates at the White House.
“We expect her to be intelligent and to express herself clearly, to have clear policies, to never show too much anger, to prove again and again that she is her place,” she told the crowd.
“But for Trump, we don’t expect anything at all. No understanding of politics, no ability to construct a coherent argument, no honesty, no decency, no morality,” denounced the former First Lady of the United States.
In a 2021 video that resurfaced this summer, Donald Trump’s future vice president, Senator JD Vance, accused the ruling Democrats of being a bunch of “unhappy cat ladies” with no conscience. “direct interest” of the country, since it lacks offspring.
Kamala Harris, who has no biological children, is raising the children of her husband Doug Emhoff from a previous relationship with her husband.
Over the past seven years, according to the American Enterprise Institute, the proportion of young men who believe the United States has gone “too far” in promoting gender equality has more than doubled.
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