Boon or Bust: What a Harris Administration Could Mean for Women’s Rights
A Harris Administration has the potential to be the biggest boon for women in more than half a century.
A Harris Administration has the potential to be the biggest boon for women in more than half a century, ushering in new policies and resources that would benefit working moms, families, and younger women. However, depending on congressional gridlock and her first 100 days, it could also be a bust.
Since entering political life, Kamala Harris has been a fierce advocate for women and families, championing issues like paid sick and family leave, pay equity, and childcare. She has also supported and opened doors for up-and-coming women leaders, such as congressional hopeful Lateefah Simon and others. As Vice President and since the fall of Roe v. Wade, she has been working hard to restore and protect reproductive rights, including access to abortion care, even as she has been tackling other urgent issues, such as inflation, the war in Gaza, and immigration.
It's clear she’s with us. The question is: Is being with us enough?
Cautiously Optimistic
Days following Joe Biden and Kamala Harris's historic 2020 election, I Zoomed into a strategy meeting wearing a shirt that read, “Good things are coming.” I was heady about the possibility of transformative change.
Would we get paid sick leave, universal childcare, or an increased minimum wage? It was all on the table. As a women’s rights advocate who had worked for more than two decades on these issues and others, it felt like our time had finally come.
For the next several months, I participated in strategy sessions with the White House’s newly formed Gender Policy Council, attended and spoke at Zoom rallies with the likes of Senator Elizabeth Warren and care activist Ai-Jen Poo, and listened to Kamala Harris declare victory was in sight.
However, none of our efforts were enough to push the American Families Plan, the third component of the Build Back Better Act, the legislation women’s rights advocates and groups helped to craft on care infrastructure and education, across the finish line. I hope this time will be different.
Without the pandemic looming large as it did four years ago, there is an opportunity to focus on paid sick and family leave, childcare, and reproductive rights on day one of the next Administration, making them a priority.
Pursuing policy and legislation on these issues should be a given in the Harris Administration. I hope cabinet-level appointments and others in the Administration will also be committed to these issues, understand the assignment, and use their power and political capital to make these policies a reality.
Her First 100 Days and Competing Issues
If elected, Kamala Harris will inherit a deeply divided country, two wars, a border crisis, a sky-high deficit, a Supreme Court in turmoil, and families reeling from the rise in cost-of-living expenses. Millions are still struggling with student debt, and high-quality, affordable health care is out of reach for many. From the start, there will be much to do and many issues to address.
The key for Harris in the first 100 days will be to avoid becoming burdened with all there is to do and demonstrate her policy priorities, governing philosophy, and core values through both actions and words. Here, her identity as a woman of color (Black and Indian) and her lived experiences will inform how she approaches, frames, and thinks about issues. This is a good thing. She shouldn’t shy away from how her identity and lived experiences have impacted her worldview or perspective. It will be a perspective we’ve never had in an American President.
I don’t view a Harris Administration as Biden 2.0. It has the potential to build a more inclusive and representative government, expand who we prioritize and center in policy-making, and widen our lens and perspective on women’s leadership.
What About Conservatives and Reaching Across the Aisle?
Few recent groundbreaking policy victories for women have occurred since the transformative Civil Rights Act of 1964, the subsequent addition of Title IX to the education amendments in 1972, the historic Roe v. Wade ruling in 1973 (recently overturned by the Supreme Court), and passage of the Violence Against Women Act in 1994.
Since the mid-1970s, conservatives have responded with coordinated and collective politics characterized by resistance, refusal, and renegotiation at every stage of women's progress. Even in a Harris Administration, we should expect the same.
I, for one, am glad Democrats have decided to shake off the stink of the “When they go low, we go high” philosophy (Sorry Michelle Obama). It was getting us nowhere and has left us empty-handed. It’s not enough to be offended by the bad behavior, rhetoric, and foul play; it’s time to fight and work hard(er) for the free, just, and equitable world we want to live in.
Conservatives have a plan, Project 2025, and have been working it to systematically strip rights away from women, LGBTQIA folks, workers, pregnant people, the childless, people of color, voters, and, as it turns out, cat-lovers. We need one, too. And once we have it, we must pursue and implement it vigorously and with determination. The lives and well-being of women, girls, and families depend on it.
What’s Making Me Cautious and Less Optimistic
Congress—the House and Senate. According to forecasts, Republicans have a 78 percent chance of winning the Senate and a 68 percent chance of maintaining control of the House of Representatives in 2024. Without Democratic control of either chamber, getting critical legislation passed or through will be an uphill battle, and that’s putting it lightly. Even now, with a Senate majority and a Democratic President, we have had trouble getting bi-partisan support for paid sick and family leave, childcare, the Equal Rights Amendment, reproductive healthcare, or voting rights. Banning TikTok, however, has clear bi-partisan support.
In the case of congressional dysfunction and gridlock, states can offer an opportunity to test and implement progressive legislation and build support for Harris’s Administration. It’s already happening. In the absence of a federal paid sick leave law, 15 states and Washington, D.C., have paid sick leave laws, with many cities and counties passing their own laws. In 2022, New Mexico became the first state to make child care free for nearly all families, and four states have enshrined abortion protections in their constitutions following the fall of Roe v. Wade.
To be sure, a Harris Administration has the potential to be a boon for women and put the country on a path to healing, unity, and restoring democracy. But electing her is only part of the equation. Electoral and judicial reform, electing progressive and women leaders at the federal and state levels, holding elected officials accountable, and having a plan we can all get behind will be crucial to her success and our future.
What’s Nicole up to? Nicole is hard at work on her next book and Future Forward, a new project powered by the New York Women’s Foundation & Fondation CHANEL. iamcnicolemason.com | @cnicolemason