You will come of age with our young nation
We’ll bleed and fight for you, we’ll make it right for you
If we lay a strong enough foundation
We’ll pass it on to you, we’ll give the world to you
And you’ll blow us all away
Someday, someday
Yeah, you’ll blow us all away
Someday, someday
“Dear Theodosia”, the song from the musical Hamilton by Lin Manuel Miranda, has been playing in my mind throughout the past few days. As both Aaron Burr and Alexander Hamilton welcome their new children to the world, they vow to fight to make the world a better place for their children, a place in which their hopes and dreams will be realized, which is a familiar sentiment shared by so many parents. We now stand on the precipice of having the first black/south Asian, female Vice President of the United States, and I cannot help but think of the sacrifice and struggle that so many women endured to get to this point.
As a young girl growing up, I had a strong mother who told me from the time I was small that I could be anything I wanted to be when I grew up. And yet, she was still hesitant in believing this herself, in saying those words to me. For my mother, there was hope that I could grow up and be what I wanted, that women would be treated as equal in our world, and yet in her lifetime, she had not known this to be a truth. It was not until I was 11 years old that we, as a country, even saw the first nomination of a woman for Vice President in a major party with the nomination of Geraldine Ferraro. I can still remember what a huge deal this was for some of the women in my life and how much it meant to me to see someone who looked like me in a position of leadership. As I became a mother to three girls, I spoke the same words of hope to each of them, reiterating the fact that they each had an opportunity to become what their heart’s desired. And yet, even in their lifetimes, they found no representation in many places, they found a world in which there still was not equality.
For all the work that has been done, there are some ceilings that have yet to be cracked. Even at this point in time, with all the strides that our nation has made, according to the World Economic Gender Gap Report (http://reports.weforum.org/global-gender-gap-report-2020/), the United States is a paltry 53rd out of the 153 economies studied worldwide and at the rate we are going, it will take well over a century to reach parity. In our government, those elected positions that hold power to create policy and affect economic change, the House has only 23.2% women and the Senate only 26%. Throughout the country, women hold just 28.9% of statewide elective executive offices.
Representation matters. It matters that young girls see strong women leaders as role models. It is no accident that even Disney has moved from a genre of movies a century ago, in which a fair (white) princess waits for a handsome prince to rescue her and provide for her, to a model of the modern princess, strong young women of different races and cultures who are smart and capable heroes in their own right. Too often, it is difficult for girls to imagine their own success, their own ability to achieve, when they have not seen others pave the way.
This is why, for me, there were tears this past weekend as Vice President-elect, Kamala Harris, stepped on stage and gave a speech. “But while I may be the first woman in this office, I won’t be the last. Because every little girl watching tonight sees that this is a country of possibilities.” Representation matters. Regardless of any political affiliation, this moment is an affirmation to every little girl that one of the highest offices in our land can be achieved. As Harris reflected in her speech about every woman who had fought for her right to stand there, she recognized, “I stand on their shoulders.” If we lay a strong enough foundation, we’ll pass it on to you, we’ll give the world to you. Today she stands on a multitude of shoulders, and tomorrow there will be a multitude of women who will stand on hers.
I want so much for my girls, as I know every parent does. I want to look at them in the eyes and tell them, in all honesty, that they can do anything. I also want my girls to feel the magnitude of that freedom they have, a freedom that lends itself to both wild and amazing possibilities and also calls them to a heartfelt responsibility to continue to make the world better for everyone. There is still work to be done. I’m ready. Are you?