Our sisterhood is resilient

Opinion Analysis by Cherly Abou Chabke, Staff Writer and Zeina Dagher, Staff Writer

November 28th, 2020

With the very recent death of US Supreme Court judge and liberal icon Ruth Bader Ginsburg, many American women felt their rights were threatened. Seeing as the new judge would be nominated by President Trump, the nominee was expected to have much more conservative views when it comes to women’s rights than her predecessor. Indeed, they were right. On the 27th of October, judge Amy Coney Barrett assumed her office – she’s known for her conservatism in civil rights matters. This felt like a big loss in the women’s rights battle, and many expected the future to be grim when it comes to matters ranging from abortion to equal pay. However, the past 3rd of November may have just brought back a ray of light. In fact, the US Congressional elections were a historical success for women in politics: more women than ever were elected into Congress, and many of them having progressive views. These elections also saw the return of four familiar faces who had, until now, championed women’s representation in politics: the Squad. So, exactly how many women are now in Congress? How did they get there? What do they want? These are all questions that will be discussed in what’s coming.

When the 117th congressional term begins in January, at least 141 women will be serving in Congress, up from 126 in 2019. Although they still make up just over a quarter of the 535 congressional seats, this number is unprecedented in US history. Not only that, but among the new representatives are (so far) 50 women of color (from black, Hispanic, Asian/Pacific Island and Native American backgrounds), a very hopeful rise since the pre-1965, all-white Congress. Many “firsts” happened for women of color: Cori Bush will be Missouri’s first Black congresswoman; New Mexico has become the first ever state to elect women of color as all three of its delegates in the US House (two of them being Native American); Marilyn Strickland will be the first Korean American elected to Congress and the first Black person to represent Washington at the federal level, and so on. These elections were also an unprecedented win for LGBTQ+ women: Kim Jackson will be the first openly LGBTQ state senator in Georgia; Sarah McBride will be the first transgender woman state senator; Mauree Turner will be the first non-binary state legislator in the U.S. and first Muslim lawmaker in Oklahoma…

The increase in diversity wasn’t only on the racial level, but also on the political one. In the mid-term elections in 2018, almost three-quarters of the women running for Congress were Democrats. However, these elections saw an unprecedented increase in Republican women being elected to Congress: at least 35 Republican women will serve in the 117th Congress, the last record being 30 in 2004. Republican women are still a minority in Congress though, with nearly 40% being Democrats, compared with less than 15% on the Republican side.

In fact, more women were elected because more stood as candidates. An unprecedented 318 women ran as Democratic or Republican candidates - official party nominees, up from the previous record of 257 set in 2018. But Republican women are largely credited in increasing the overall number of women in Congress. "Women around the country have watched other women before them be successful and realize, 'Hey, I can do it,'" said Iowa GOP Rep.-elect Ashley Hinson. After electing only one new Republican woman to the House in the midterms, Republicans this year have elected at least 15 non-incumbent women: they are making up for losses they suffered in 2018. New York Rep. Elise Stefanik, who had recruited more than 100 women as head of recruitment for the House GOP campaign arm, only saw one of them win. "I very publicly said at the end of the midterms in 2018 that we needed to do better", she says. However, whereas Democratic women have long been boosted by the pro-abortion rights group EMILY's List, Republicans have lacked comparable infrastructure to invest in female candidates. "Successes like these don't just happen," CAWP director Debbie Walsh says. "They require the dedicated attention of parties, donors, activists, and voters, as is particularly evident from the expanded number of Republican women candidates this year." This is why Stefanik made conscious efforts to put Republican women back in Congress. She relaunched her leadership PAC to boost women in primaries: her committee ended up promoting more than two dozen candidates and giving $415,000 to Republican women candidates.

What also helped Republican women gain more seats was an overall favorable environment: if Trump didn’t win a second term, the Democrat-Republican presidential race was very tight, which shows that the Republican party still very much benefits of a large following. But Republican women are aware that they won seats in Congress not just to represent the Republican party, but also the average American woman. "They picked me this time, they know that I'm a mom, I drive a minivan, you know, we have a regular life here in Iowa," said Ashley Hinson, a Republican state representative and former journalist.

However, many may wonder: why are we celebrating more Republican women in Congress? Won’t they be an obstacle to women getting and maintaining their reproductive rights? Won’t they be opposed to attempts at implementing equality between men and women? Truth is, the vast majority of women in Congress are still Democrats, and many women considered their rights safe with the reelection of four particular women who marked the last congressional term: the “Squad”, consisting of Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York, Ilhan Omar of Minnesota, Ayanna Pressley of Massachusetts, and Rashida Tlaib of Michigan.

In order to understand the “raison d’être” of “the Squad” and its impact, it is crucial to briefly study the evolution of the role of women in politics in the US. 

From suffragettes to modern day feminists, women have fought long and hard for “women’s right to vote” and hold office.  Despite the fact that it is widely acknowledged that development, growth, peace and prosperity in societies cannot be accomplished without half of the world’s population; women are still sidelined in decision-making, and sometimes even silenced. The stigma against women in politics is therefore still alive, well, and thriving; women, in many cases, are way too easily relegated to the “less competent than men” category, as they simultaneously continue to struggle, with socioeconomic, institutional, racial, structural, and cultural barriers. The glass ceiling is the perfect metaphor used to explain the obstacles women face on their way to public office.

Here is a rather simple, yet appalling, forestage of the US history in that domain: “In its 230-year history, the 435-seat United States Congress has counted just 80 Congresswomen of color: 47 black, 20 Hispanic and 13 Asian-American”. The 100-seat United States Senate, also founded 230 years ago, has only seen five nonwhite women senators: Carol Moseley Braun, Kamala Harris - now turned vice president elect- , Tammy Duckworth, Hirono Mazie, Catherine Marie Cortez Masto, the last four being in office only within the last decade. Moreover, “only 44 women have occupied the post of governor, and two of them have been nonwhite”.

Not only women in general have been extremely underrepresented and marginalized, but women of color specifically, were, and still are today, the main prey of the whole establishment. 

With this in mind, it is nevertheless vital to acknowledge the fact that black women have historically been at the core of many revolutionary institutional, structural and judicial changes. They have always led the way on the streets:  Rosa Parks through her pivotal role in the Civil Rights Movement paved the way for the current efforts invested in favor of the fight against racism. Tarana Burke founder of #MeToo movement, encouraged women from all over the world to speak up, and denounce sexual harassment and abuse. Alicia Garza, Patrice Cullors, and Opal Tometi, co-founders of the Black Lives Matter movement, made history this year, through protests against police brutality. The organizers of the Women’s March, a diverse coalition of women, aim to amplify the voices of minorities by granting them leadership positions. And the list goes on…. 

Therefore, Civil rights, women’s rights, gay rights, gun control, police violence, and sexual assault are only few of the areas where minority women have done much of the essential, often overlooked, work on which larger social movements were built.

However, the 2018 midterms brought about a distinct shift. No longer willing to let a longstanding elite political class control their fate, minority women decided instead to run for office themselves. In fact, in 2018, a small wave of progressive, congressional candidates, all women of color, and first time candidates, was elected to Congress: “The Squad”, which consists of 4 members. Who are they? 

Alexandra Ocasio Cortez, also known as AOC, is the youngest woman ever elected to Congress. She’s the daughter of “working-class” Puerto-Rican parents, a former Bronx bartender, who is considered an avid proponent of a $15 minimum wage, and student loan forgiveness. She introduced the Green New Deal Resolution, to combat the global climate crisis. Ilhan Omar,is one of the first two Muslim women, ever elected to Congress. She was born in Somalia and became an American citizen at the age of 17, and has been a vocal critic of israel’s treatment of Palestinians. Rashida Tlaib, is also one of the first two Muslim women, ever elected to Congress. She’s the daughter of immigrant-Palestinian parents, and supports the BDS movement against israel. Ayanna Presley is the first black congresswoman to represent Massachusetts, and the first black woman, ever elected to Boston’s city council. 

Since taking office in January 2019, the lawmakers have electrified “the left's progressive base” and fired up social media, but have also attracted controversy and the ire of President Donald Trump, and Conservatives. They have been indeed targeted with repeated racist and misogynistic attacks and insults from President Trump, who used the phrase "AOC plus three" during the presidential debates, and the phrase “go back and help fix the totally broken and crime infested places from which they came” last summer. Following the last comment, Ocasio-Cortez declared back in 2019, "What I want to tell children across this country is that no matter what the President says, this country belongs to you," while Pressley said, "Our squad includes any person committed to building a more equitable and just world, and that is the work that we want to get back to."

According to Tlaib the squad is “an extension of a movement in our country that wants Medicare for all, that wants us to end mass incarceration, that wants us to push back against the attacks on communities of color. I mean, I think all of us have incredibly strong residents in our district that have spoken volumes in electing people like us."

By standing up for what they believe in, and for what's right, just and fair for everyone, the members of the squad have been able to shape a new model of US politics, and redefine the role of women in that field. 

All four ran for reelection this year — and all four have won. According to CBS News, “Omar defeated Lacy Johnson in Minnesota, Ocasio-Cortez defeated John Cummings in New York, Tlaib defeated David Dudenhoefer in Michigan, and Ayana Pressley defeated Roy Owens in Massachusetts”. To celebrate the group's victory, Omar tweeted a simple message: "Our sisterhood is resilient." 

Having the squad all back in Congress means that Democrats will definitely have strong voices in government going forward, regardless of what happens today. Its success also led the way for a new wave of candidates in 2020: Cori Bush, Jamal Bowman, and Mondaire Jones, will soon be joining the squad in Congress. 

“While I may be the first woman in this office, I will not be the last,” asserted Kamala Harris in her first post-election speech to the nation. She was right: the 2020 US elections show nothing but a promising future for women in politics. However, women are still underrepresented in Congress: more than half of the US population consists of women, while they are still just above 25% in Congress. The job is therefore not done. More women need to fill seats, and the only way to achieve that is by encouraging more women to run for elections. And since the US has always been extremely influential, we can only hope to see this progress mirrored in Lebanese politics, as out of the 128 current Lebanese Parliament members, only 6 are women.