By Norma Adams-Wade
Touché! Karma has Trumped a victory!
President-elect Donald Trunk and his minions appeared confident that his victory over Vice-President Kamala Harris had put women in their place and the gender issue to rest.
Alas. Along comes Mexico’s newly-elected first female president — right across the Southern border — to be a too-close thorn in Trump’s chauvinistic and misogynistic side.
The world watched as the newly-elected Claudia Sheinbaum was sworn in as Mexico’s new head of government on October 1, 2024 – slightly over 200 years since that country officially declared independence from Spain in 1821.
Signaling poetic justice, President Sheinbaum — a climate scientist and former Mayor of Mexico City — did not hesitate to send bold messages to the new incoming U. S. head of government in Sheinbaum’s first stand-off against Trump’s new administration.
President-elect Trump threatened that on his first day in office he would impose a 25 % tariff on Mexico, Canada and China as his way to control import issues including illegal immigration and the flow of the Fentanyl drug into the U. S.
Mexico’s first female president stands her ground
President Sheinbaum responding directly to Trump, saying: “President Trump, migration and drug consumption in the United States cannot be addressed through threats or tariffs. What is needed is cooperation… For every tariff there will be a response in kind, until we put at risk our shared enterprises. Yes, shared.”
Sheinbaum further made her tariff position clear in a press conference. She remarked about Canada Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s recent, apparently amiable meeting with President-elect Trump at his Mar-a-Lago resort to discuss Trump’s tariffs threats. Sheinbaum said simply but boldly: “Mexico must be respected.”
And so, the drama begins.
Envision Kamala Harris and others as U. S. First female President
Had our vice-president won the election, allow me to imagine the conversation of the two women conversing on a first name basic. Claudia and Kamala – as supporters affectionately call our vice-president — would have been a mindboggling duo, deciding border and economic issues together. But in reality, although the U. S. and Mexico share a southern border, our two countries have very little else in common, certainly not vision — more lack thereof.
I was just thinking…The legacies of so many strong, bold, talented, smart, and sassy women would have been ground Kamala (the endeared first name) would stand on to lead our country were it not for her gender. I envision many female leaders who blazed trails with strong leadership qualities, vision, and conviction and could have competently worn the U. S. presidential clock, were it not for deep-seated national gender, and perhaps racial, bias.
Here are some women from present and past generations who come to mind: Barbara Jordan, Sheila Jackson Lee, Ann Richards, Shirley Chisholm, Condoleezza Rice, Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Eddie Bernice Johnson, Dianne Feinstein, Eleanor Roosevelt, Nancy Pelosi, Michelle Obama (who says no thank you), Cherokee Nation Chief Wilma Mankiller; and in my second tier — Fannie Lou Hamer, Ida B Well-Barnett, Harriet Tubman, Sojourner Truth, Maya Angelou, and yes, Whoopi Goldberg.
Mexico said yes, USA said no
The citizens of Mexico and a huge contingent of its female population gave Sheinbaum her victory on a silver platter on June 2, 2024. She won over her opponent – also a female –
and was sworn-in Oct. 1, 2024. One month later on November 5, 2024, the American people rejected our opportunity to follow suit by electing our own first female president in our nation’s 248-year history.
Instead, American citizens took what some would consider the coward’s exit. Voters symbolically declared, “Give us Barabbas!” Then voters — running away from the apparently frightening aspect of a female making decisions for the nation — placed at our helm what has become the familiar cliché “a convicted felon.”
Kamala Harris’s credentials
Among female U. S. presidential contenders, Kamala Harris and Hillary Clinton seem to have come closest to achieving the power and position Sheinbaum now has in Mexico. Kamala’s credentials and achievements speak volumes. Historians describe her as “the highest ranking woman in American political history.”
Harris has been San Francisco District Attorney, California Attorney General, California U. S. Senator. She was president of the national Senate, and first female African-American and Asian-American U. S. vice-president. Historically, in her position as VP, she was the first woman and third person to assume the powers and duties of the presidency, as acting U. S. President
She did so for an hour and 45 minutes on Nov 19, 2021 while President Joe Biden underwent colonoscopy. Her enthusiastic, wide- cheeked laugh and full-teethed smile has become both a beloved and vilified personal trait. The U. S. has not yet accepted the concept of strong female leadership at the helm of the country. Yet, our border-neighbor and other warriors are showing us the ropes.
Hillary Clinton’s presidential run still opening doors for future generations
Hillary Clinton is one of those warrior-female leaders. She has worn so many hats that likely, her head regularly is re-measured for size. She has been an attorney, former “first lady” as wife of former president Bill Clinton (1993-2001), first woman elected to the U. S. Senate in 2000, and was former U. S. Secretary of State (2009-2013) in the Barack Obama administration.
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Clinton challenged Barack Obama in the 2008 Democratic primary. Obana won and defeated Republican opponent John McClain in the general election. In 2016, Hillary Clinton was the Democratic Party presidential nominee but lost to Republican challenger Donald Trump. Media reports say she surpassed Trump by nearly 2.9 million in the popular vote, winning 48.2 percent of all popular votes cast, while Trump won 46.1 percent.
Trump won the general election with 304 electoral college votes to Hillary Clinton’s 227.
Clinton, the glass-ceiling breaker, has been shining light on female heads of government and female leaders around the world as her legacy before and since her devastating 2016 presidential defeat.
In 2011, she became the appointed Honorary Founding Chair of the Institute for Women, Peace and Security at Georgetown University in Washington, D. C. That body presents annual awards named in her honor to women working to bring peace and security around the world. Clinton said at the Oct. 1, 2024 event that the awards were created “to recognize the importance of women’s participation and leadership in global peacebuilding.”
Since 2020, she has served as the first female Chancellor of Queen’s University Belfast in Belfast, Northern Ireland. Also, Swansee University in Swansee, Wales (UK) has the Hillary Rodham Clinton School of Law named in her honor. In 2023 she joined Columbia University in New York City as co-founder of the Institute of Global Politics and a leader in the school’s other international public affairs services.
She is the namesake of the Hillary Rodham Clinton Center for Citizenship at her alma mater Wellesley College in Wellesley, Massachusetts, and the namesake of the Hillary Rodham Clinton Chair of Women’s History at Oxford University in Oxford, England. Brenda E. Stevenson, herself an African-American woman — and award-winning historian of gender, race, conflict, slavery, and family – is chair. Clinton further is an author, podcaster, and produces television, broadcast, and stage shows highlighting women’s achievements.
Other USA women with calibers equal to a Claudia Sheinbaum, Kamala Harris or Hillary Clinton have always been there before our very eyes. We refuse to see them. What are we going to do about it? We will learn more about women who head governments around the world – except in the U. S. — in a future column. Stay tuned.
Norma Adams-Wade, is a proud Dallas native, University of Texas at Austin journalism graduate and retired Dallas Morning News senior staff writer. She is a founder of the National Association of Black Journalists and was its first southwest regional director. She became The News’ first Black full-time reporter in 1974. norma_adams_wade@yahoo.com.
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