Vice President Kamala Harris, speaking Nov. 6 at her alma mater, Howard University in Washington, D.C., concedes her 2024 presidential campaign against former President Donald Trump. (Jada Ingleton/The Washington Informer)
By reelecting Donald J. Trump over Kamala Harris on Nov. 5, America again showed the nation and world that she needs to be more mature to elect a competent and highly qualified woman as president.
Namibia, a southern African country with a population of 3 million, recently elected Netumbo Nandi-Ndaitwah as its first female president.
In a few months, when President-elect Nandi-Ndaitwah is sworn into office on March 21, she will become the 14th current female head of state. In addition to Namibia, the following countries have female leaders: Barbados, Denmark, Marshall Islands, Tanzania, Samoa, Honduras, Italy, Peru, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Latvia, Switzerland, Thailand, and Mexico.
Ten of these 14 presidents are their country’s first female executives.
Nandi-Ndaitwah, affectionately known as “NNN,” is Africa’s fourth woman elected president. Former Presidents Ellen Sirleaf-Johnson and Joyce Bandi led Liberia and Malawi, respectively.
Overall, 60 United Nations member states (31%) have had a woman serve as head of state. The first was Sri Lanka, then called Ceylon, in 1960. Two other countries—India in 1966 and Israel in 1960—also witnessed their first women leaders in that decade.
Great Britain has elected three female prime ministers, including the 1979 election Margaret Thatcher, the “Iron Lady.”
Israel’s first prime minister, David Ben-Gurion, often called former Israeli Prime Minister Golda Mier “the best man in government.”
So why can’t the U.S. catch up?
In a recent Politico article titled “Harris Was Pushed Off a Glass Cliff—Repeatedly,” the authors state, “Clinton’s lead over Trump among women voters was 13 points in 2016. Eight years later, Harris’ lead over Trump was eight points.”
“In other words,” the authors continue, “Harris lost support among women voters who had previously voted for a women candidate. These voters must be making their minds up on issues other than gender.”
Then in America, another issue comes to mind: racism.
While sexism and not racism seemed to prevent Clinton from victory over Trump in 2016, both forms of discrimination were critical in Harris’ campaign and the outcome of the 2024 election.
“The fact that we have to work twice as hard to get Americans to listen to an accomplished Black woman instead of a mediocre white man is white supremacy,” Keith Boykin wrote in the article “5 Big Lies About Why Donald Trump Won,” as part of his Word in Black column “Black Vote, Black Power.” “The fact that people excused Trump’s 3 million job losses during his administration, but penalized Harris for not being perfect is white supremacy. And the fact that we’re even susceptible to Trump’s misinformation is a result of hundreds of years of racist white supremacist programming that has taught us to believe white men and discredit Black voices.”
Will America ever follow Africa and a host of other nations and elect a female Commander-In-Chief?
Or will we continue to choose male incompetence over female competence?
The world is 14; America is 0!
Reprinted from the Washington Informer