Hillary Clinton's recent trouncing by Bernie Sanders among young women in New Hampshire's primary is a telling sign; young women do not feel compelled to support Hillary just because she is one of their own. In fact, to many millennials like The Village Voice's Holly Wood, Bernie's "rage against the machine" message is more resonant than Hillary's "I'm the best person for the job" pitch. To these young women, whose ages extend all the way up to the mid 40's, the pressing battle is income inequality and a belief that the system is so grossly rigged in favor of the rich and powerful the only way to ensure fairness is to strip power away directly. Racism, sexism, homophobia and the like will subsequently begin to fade, once the system is back in the hands of the people.
If it were only that simple.
Now, I'm sure that sentence quietly reveals where I stand. Yes, I am not a millennial woman deeply attracted to Bernie's platform. I grew up in a time when women's issues were openly part of the social conversation, and when women were making early, notable advances in higher education and corporate middle management. I navigated early adulthood during the backlash too, when Susan Faludi's book of the same name and Naomi Wolf's The Beauty Myth laid bare the cultural and social price women were asked to pay for all their "advancement." Yet women still made strides rewriting unfair laws, pushing themselves to higher leadership roles and fighting to ensure their daughters would have an easier time determining their futures than they did.
Twenty-five years later we are witnessing the second run of the first serious and widely supported female contender for the President of the United States. At the same time, we have scores of female voters choosing issue politics over gender politics and in many respects that is a good thing. The world has changed, fundamentally. But sexism is far from dead. It's just become keener in its subtlety. Think about the alarming rate of campus sexual assault and the tone-deaf response from many school administrators. Think of the ridiculously low rate of venture capital funding that goes to women-run tech companies in Silicon Valley (3% of all VC funding between 2001-2013, per Jay Newton-Small in Broad Influence). Think of the fact that of all the S&P 500 CEOs, only 4% of them are women. If you want to talk about changing the "system" then consider the deeply ingrained system of power in our society, still predicated on an outdated model; a model created long ago by educated white males. Of course, economic inequality is a huge concern. But creating a smoother income curve does not automatically address the issue of what success should look like and how many paths society accepts toward its achievement.
Which brings about a curious problem. How does a woman like Hillary thread the needle between issue and gender politics? Racism did not suddenly disappear once Barack Obama was elected president, nor was it realistic to assume it would. He had to thread his own needle and was criticized repeatedly for not doing it perfectly. Yet he did, in my view, use his office to speak openly about the challenge of race and, with Attorney General Eric Holder, expand the movement for justice reform, a movement that has the potential to positively change the lives of millions of young African Americans.
Sexism is particularly troublesome because unlike racism, religious intolerance and homophobia, the "other" is everywhere. Women are not physically separated from male society, they are mothers, wives, sisters, daughters. You can't push the "other" out of sight, which makes the need to bring attention to women's otherness more pressing because it can be easily overlooked. Yet recognizing, understanding and confronting that otherness is the gateway to dismantling sexism. A woman leader's experience coming up the ranks is different from a man's because she had to navigate a system her foremothers never built. Women leaders should not be afraid to speak that truth. This does not mean that gender overshadows performance or philosophy. It does mean that gender colors them and provides an opportunity for richer performance, philosophy and solutions for all.
So to those concerned with an unequal system, look farther than economic inequality. Realize that even those who achieved in spite of gender, race, orientation, etc., are still working in a system they did not create. Deeply entrenched systems don't tumble down. They disintegrate under external and internal pressure, when the numbers of non-traditional leaders reach a critical mass, typically 20-30% as Newton-Small notes for women. Real change happens not at the watershed point but from the pressure of millions of ceiling cracks over time.
And to those women looking to lead, lead with the totality of who you are, including your gender experience. Put pressure on the old system. Make it unable to stand firm. We have come a very long way but we are not there...yet.