Kamala Harris: An Unprecedented Candidacy?

American History Hit

History Hit

America, History

4.5 • 1.3K Ratings

🗓️ 15 August 2024

⏱️ 30 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Cleopatra, Catherine the Great, Boudicca, Margaret Thatcher, Angela Merkel: what do these women have in common? They were all leaders of their nations, and they may - pending the choices of the electorate later this year - be joined in their ranks by an American.

But what might Kamala Harris face if she wins the election? What is she already facing? Are there patterns in the way they are discussed? From Eve to Hillary Clinton, Don is joined by author Eleanor Herman to discuss the history of responses to women in leadership roles.

Eleanor's book on this subject is 'Off With Her Head: Three Thousand Years of Demonizing Women in Power'.

Produced by Sophie Gee. Edited by Aidan Lonergan. Senior Producer was Charlotte Long.

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Transcript

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0:00.0	On this episode of American history
0:02.8	let's start by taking a gander at the US Constitution.
0:06.2	Here we are, Article 2, Section 1, Clause 5.
0:10.2	No person except a natural-born citizen or citizen in the United States at the time of the adoption of this Constitution shall be eligible to that office of President.
0:20.0	Neither shall any person be eligible to that office who shall not have attained at the age of 35 years and been 14 years a resident within the United States.
0:30.0	That's it. Pretty straightforward, pretty simple, not a lot of requirements. So why is it with such wide parameters?
0:38.0	Our presidents have tended to have so much in common. Why such a men's club? What's with that? Let's take a closer look. This is American History Hit and I'm your host Don Wildman.
0:59.0	Well, once again, we're here.
1:01.0	A presidential election in America. And as I speak, three months out facing an unusual circumstance we've seen once before.
1:09.0	Eight years ago, in 2016, when one of the two major parties ran as a candidate for presidency
1:15.2	Hillary Clinton a woman shocking that certainly wasn't the first time a woman had
1:20.2	run for the office surely chism leaps to mind in 1968, and there have been others over the years.
1:26.0	The difference in 2016 and today is the major party nomination.
1:31.0	Vice President Kamala Harris, the Democrat, will be running against
1:34.8	former President Donald Trump the Republican. And away we go. Right back to the
1:39.7	old dynamics of politics in America, never mind around the world.
1:44.0	Let's just say this, plainly and without bias.
1:48.0	You must be joking.
1:50.0	Every time this happens in politics at any level, but especially with the presidency, the screaming double standards fly.
1:57.0	The fact that we are recording an episode on the subject of a woman running for the presidency is itself a double standard. Would we take an episode
2:04.8	to discuss the implications of a man occupying the highest office in the land? No, that
2:09.4	would be silly. So why is it otherwise for a woman?
	...

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