She, the President

In the lead-up to the 2016 U.S. election, a group of cognitive scientists and linguists conducted an experiment looking into how gender bias affects the use of language. In particular, they wanted to find out whether holding a belief that a female candidate will win, affects how people think of the word president. The results show that even those who believed Hillary Clinton would take over as the Commander in Chief, stumbled when reading about the president as a she. It literally takes people more time to process what they read if the president is presented as a woman.

In a recent interview, politician and public servant, Stacey Abrams, spoke about her gubernatorial campaign in Georgia: a race which made her a prominent figure among Democrats. Not only is Stacey a woman politician aiming ambitiously for the highest jobs, but she's an African-American woman politician. In this interview, she thoughtfully combs through the questions of why different groups of voters perceive her as (non)electable:

When I reached out [they said]: "You're qualified, but you're a Black woman." As if they gave me some kind of fatal diagnosis. [...] What I found was that it was less about me; it was more about how people perceived that combination of what I am—the electability. [...] People position themselves through the worst lens they can imagine. And sometimes it's because they want to look out for you, but sometimes it's because they want to justify their own discomfort. 

So much of what growing as a woman in any male-dominated profession is about is stretching your own imagination to recognize that you can be in that role that no other person similar to you has occupied before.

And the second part is to recognize that you deserve it. Stacey puts this wonderfully in the interview as she discusses self-doubt:

We have to be intentional about it. [I]t takes practice to be able to shed thousands of years of indoctrination about our value. 

Language becomes a crucial tool in stretching the imagination of the public. How we communicate about who does what job is crucial to creating new opportunities. The same group of researchers who looked into language and bias in the U.S., did research among British voters in 2017. They found that respondents were more likely to use "she" than "he" when talking about the next Prime Minister. At the time Theresa May was expected to win, and voters had already internalized the idea of a female political leader through the UK's first female PM, Margaret Thatcher.

I love the ending of the interview with Stacey when she proudly says that, yes, she believes that she will be elected as the first female African-American President of the U.S. in the next twenty years. There's power in her words, and you can see that she lives that belief every day.

The comment section is unfortunately filled with hateful language, but one comment stuck with me. It warns that electing a female African-American President would be a risk similar to electing Obama which strengthened the right and increased tensions along racial and economic lines. Fears of this kind don't recognize that the deeply ingrained origins of tensions predate the Obama era (thanks, Reagan). Fears of this kind also don't recognize that twenty years is a long time and that things can change. The idea of Bernie as President wasn't possible twenty years ago. Stretch your mind.

This reminds me of one memory from my childhood when I was about five years old. I used to tell my friends at the kindergarten that my mom was the President of our country. (It was Milošević irl). My mom worked at a big bank building with a guard at the door and fancy marble floors, and that for me meant power. And who could be more powerful than a president?

Imagination matters. Stories we tell ourselves and others matter. I believe that Stacey, indeed, will get where she is headed.