We’ve had many wrong calls about this being the “year of the woman” over the last decade or so. All the prognosticators were wrong. The march of women leaders wasn’t sustained, but this year might be different. The era of women leaders might be a reality that sticks.
The Wall Street Journal’s Gerald Seib recently gave a rundown of the key evidence for the rise of women power based on their showing in the 2020 elections in the United States (WSJ, November 17, 2020):
• Senator Kamala Harris will become the first woman vice president of the United States.
• An all-time high number of Republican women were elected to the House of Representatives, doubling the last high number of Republican women representatives.
• Women voters were the key reason Biden won. In fact, the entire winning margin for Biden came from women.
• For the second presidential election in a row, a woman was in charge of the winning presidential campaign (Kellyanne Conway in 2016 and Jen O’Mally Dillon in 2020.
• There is a record number of women being chosen for key cabinet positions, such as Janet Yellen for Secretary of the Treasury (another first).
Alas, we may finally be seeing political leaders who reflect the electorate in terms of gender who, hopefully, will bring about a more diverse points of view and a less polarized political environment.