Is Kamala Harris Following Footsteps of Other Trailblazing Female Leaders

By Rosaland Tyler
Associate Editor
New Journal and Guide

Will a national crisis catapult U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris into the position of Commander in Chief, the way a crisis thrust trailblazing female leaders Margaret Thatcher, Indira Gandhi and Ellen Johnson Sirleaf into their nation’s oval offices in Britain, India and Liberia?

Harris unexpectedly became the likely U.S. Presidential nominee for the Democrats after President Joe Biden dropped out of the 2024 race on July 21. But will Biden’s abrupt resignation, which dates back to his disappointing debate performance against former President Donald Trump in June, cause Harris to become the first Black woman and first Asian American to lead the ticket of a major political party?

“LaTosha Brown, a co-founder of Black Voters Matter, a progressive group that works to boost Black voter turnout, recently told CNN, “We’ve seen her constantly berated, marginalized, questioned. I think that the shift is because there’s a need.”

History shows a leadership crisis unfolded before Thatcher’s sweeping 1979 electoral victory. It came on the heels of British Prime Minister Edward Heath’s downward spiral. Specifically, Heath lost two successive elections starting in 1974. With the backing of the Conservative right wing, Thatcher was elected leader in February 1975 and thus began a 15-year ascendancy that would change the face of Britain. But in 1990, Thatcher announced her resignation as Conservative Party leader and was replaced by John Majors.

In India, a similar pattern unfolded after Gandhi rose to power in 1966 and served as India’s prime minister until 1977. She was assassinated in 1984 after her leadership came under continual challenge from the right wing of the party

In Liberia, Sirleaf was elected president of the Republic of Liberia in 2005, two years after the nation’s bloody civil war ended. Her historic inauguration as Africa’s first democratically elected woman head of state took place on January 16, 2006. Prior to the election, she had served in the transitional government, where she chaired the Governance Reform Commission and led the country’s anti-corruption reform. She won reelection in November 2011.

Records show that as of June 2024, only  27 countries are headed by 28 women who serve as Heads of State.