Op-Ed

5 Reasons Why Women in America Need to Get Behind Kamala

By Willie Brown

1. Throw old beauty standards out the window.  They said Hillary Clinton didn’t smile enough.  Now Kamala smiles too much.  Hillary wasn’t pretty enough.  Kamala is too pretty. 

Never mind their impressive backgrounds—Hillary’s 8 years in the White House, 4 years as Secretary of State and 8 years in the U.S. Senate; Kamala’s 7 years as California’s Attorney General, 4 years in the U.S. Senate and 4 years as the nation’s Vice President—folks are hyperfocused on their physical appearance.

Historically, men have held positions of power, which has influenced women’s clothing choices.  They have defined how women should dress (often based on styles that reveal feminine form vs. comfort or practicality).  Men rarely make the news based on how they look. Wrinkles and a little extra fat around the tummy are just fine.  Not so much with the ladies.

But times have changed, and more women are showing up in ways that suit themselves. More women in general are rejecting the notion that they must stand in stilettos and wear dresses to be accepted.  They are opting for comfort as well as style.  That includes pants, and hair styles based on their preferences.   Having a woman in power as leader of the free world, such as Vice President Kamala Harris, would be incredibly freeing for women everywhere. 

• Misogyny must die.  Women have been socialized to believe they have to be passive and timid, or dumb themselves down and cater to men to get what they want.  They can succeed, but only if they do what men say, not voice their opinions and show any serious intent to (Heaven forbid!) surpass men.

Other than the fact that men can’t have babies, many still have the belief that they are better than women, especially in Congress where men outnumber women by more than 70 percent.  White males, especially, are worried about losing their power and want to double down on old patriarchal rules to keep women in their place.  But the time has come for women to create new pathways.  With Vice President Harris leading the way, women can free themselves of the mental prisons that men have tried to keep them in.

• End economic dependence on men.  There was a time when women were not allowed to open credit accounts without permission from their husbands.  Widows or single women were looked down upon, and making ends meet without a spouse was a constant challenge. The wage gap kept women under male dominance, and women were forced into marriage out of financial necessity.   Some were trapped in bad marriages, but stayed because they believed there was no other way to survive.

With so many women now holding high-level positions of power, women get to choose whether or not to marry, when and to whom.  Equal opportunities in employment and significant increases in women-owned businesses have made it possible for more women to take control of their financial future.    

With Kamala in office, there will be more opportunities for women to advance in their careers, start new businesses, and own their own homes.

• Maintain legal and social advances for women.  The 19^th Amendment, which guaranteed women the right to vote in 1920; access to birth control in 1965; and the ruling of Roe vs. Wade in 1973, granting women access to legal abortions are the biggest game-changers for women in the  20^th Century.  They gave women a say in who they wanted in power and the right to make decisions about their own bodies.  The ability to choose when and if to have children, or how to deal with unwanted pregnancies gave women unprecedented freedoms.  No longer did they have to give up their jobs, stay at home to raise children or depend upon men.  No longer were they torn between having children and living in poverty.

Now that the Trump Supreme Court has rolled back Roe vs. Wade, it is critical that woman fight to restore their right to safe abortions, to reclaim freedom over their own bodies.  No one (especially male politicians) should be able to control whether a woman can get access to birth control or abortions.  These decisions should be made between a woman and her husband or partner—not someone on the Supreme Court.

Kamala will fight to restore the basic right for a woman to choose.  This is why it’s so important to vote in this election.  It’s not just about what happens on Nov. 5, but what happens over the next 5 to 10 years.

• Men need to take responsibility.  From Day One, men have used their money, power and brute strength to exercise unfair advantages over women.  They have used their authority to justify bad behavior and put the blame on women.  In the Bible, for instance, Eve became the scapegoat for all the world’s ills when she ate fruit in the Garden, while Adam (whom God told directly not to eat the fruit) came off as pure and innocent.  Sound familiar?  This is the same line of thinking used to justify enslaving people of color. 

I am urging women of every race, creed, religion, age, and sexual orientation to get on board and support Vice President Kamala Harris as she prepares to make history again.  Register to vote, volunteer to get others registered, drive a friend to

the voting poll.  This election is way too important to sit out.  A vote for Kamala is a vote for women.  Men have been waging wars, destroying life and blaming others for far too long.  We need more estrogen in the White House.  We need Kamala.