Elayne Clift (elayne-clift.com) has written this column about women, politics, and social issues for almost 20 years.
BRATTLEBORO-As Vice President Kamala Harris has proven since she began campaigning to become president, she is no neophyte in the world of politics, as some proclaim.
Nor is she a potted plant: She has an amazing presence, a strong intellect, an impressive resume, and refreshing charm as she campaigns calmly and with dignity.
Harris joins a distinguished group of accomplished women who precede her as capable, courageous change-makers.
History is full of such women.
Hypatia, who died in 415, was a mathematician and philosopher who risked upsetting the establishment's sexism. She was killed for that, but we know her name.
Hildegard von Bingen, born in 1098, is better known than Hypatia. Sequestered in an abbey at age 9, she became a scientist, healer, and mystic and is regarded as the most- accomplished medieval woman.
As a writer, Christine de Pizan, born in Italy in 1364, advocated for women's equality. Her works are considered to be among the earliest feminist writing. She argued that speaking up was a powerful tool for women.
Olympe de Gouges, born in 1748 in France, was a social reformer who challenged conventional views on many issues, including divorce, women's roles, the need for maternity hospitals, and the rights of orphaned children.
In the 18th century, Mary Wollstonecraft was a renowned women's rights activist who in 1792 authored A Vindication of the Rights of Women, which remains a classic.
Nearly a century later, the women of Seneca Falls, New York, including women of the Iroquois Confederacy, forged a new agenda for women, including the right to vote. The list of leaders, orators, and organizers of that movement is long and important. Matilda Joslyn Gage, Sojourner Truth, the Grimké sisters, and many others changed women's lives, although it took decades for them to vote.
Alice Paul continued the work of the Suffragists when she helped secure passage of the 19th Amendment to the Constitution, enfranchising women. She authored the Equal Rights Amendment in 1923, which has still not been adopted.
Paul's Silent Sentinels picketed the White House during Woodrow Wilson's presidency, remaining persistent despite attacks and arrests. Paul was jailed and quickly organized a hunger strike while enduring force feedings and threats of psychiatric incarceration.
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These women, and others, weren't viewed as overtly political figures in their own time, but their social justice work was profoundly political.
Dorothy Day is an example. A journalist and social activist, she resisted war and nuclear testing. She was also a leader of the Catholic Worker movement of peace, civil rights, and workers rights, while advocating for women's rights.
With help from the educator Mary McLeod Bethune, Eleanor Roosevelt had a major impact on her husband, Franklin Delano Roosevelt, and his reluctance to address racism. She became actively political by promoting the Universal Declaration of Human Rights while urging women's involvement in international affairs.
Eleanor Roosevelt likely influenced FDR to appoint Frances Perkins as secretary of labor, the first woman to serve as a cabinet secretary. Perkins was the driving force behind the New Deal and actively supported labor laws.
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Subsequently, women started earning their places in governments' highest offices, by election or appointment.
Among them were Sirimavo Bandaranaike, the world's first female prime minister, who assumed that role in Sri Lanka (then the Dominion of Ceylon) in 1960, and Vigdís Finnbogadóttir, voted Iceland's president three times, becoming the first elected female president in the world. Finnbogadóttir was followed by other Nordic women as effective heads of state.
Norwegian politician Gro Harlem Brundtland made her mark as an environmental leader, prime minister, and party leader. She gained international recognition for her work on the environment, human rights, and sustainable development.
Ellen Johnson Sirleaf became Liberia's first female president and was among the three women who won the 2011 Nobel Prize for Peace for "for their non-violent struggle for the safety of women and for women's rights to full participation in peace-building work." Known as Africa's Iron Lady, she promoted peace, justice, and democratic rule, for which she was jailed by a military junta.
Mary Robinson was president of Ireland and was highly regarded for her transformative effect on her country. She fought for the legalization of contraception, the decriminalization of homosexuality, the legalization of divorce, and women's ability to serve on juries.
Michelle Bachelet, president of Chile twice, was that country's first woman to serve in that office. She focused on the needs of the poor, reformed the pension system, promoted the rights of women, and recognized the rights of the country's indigenous people.
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Outside the political arena of presidents and prime ministers, politically active women throughout history have contributed to the realm of social justice, human rights, and equality.
Among them are writers who see the world through a gender lens. Simone de Beauvoir, Tillie Olsen, Adrienne Rich, Gloria Steinem, Alice Walker, Audre Lorde, and others have illuminated the reality of people's lives, the need for political action and reform, and the value of women's contributions, no matter their class or caste.
They help us see the urgency of defeating stereotypes, overcoming destructive assumptions, and instituting compassionate laws and practices that demonstrate an understanding of what makes us strong, safe, and free.
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Kamala Harris joins these women.
She is part of a sisterhood who envisioned a different way of being. She is not an anomaly.
In this time of fractious debate, it's urgent that we recognize who she is, what she offers, and what she will do as she goes forward in good company.
This Voices column was submitted to The Commons.
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