On Saturday, Nov. 7, 2020, the former Vice President, Joe Biden, and his running mate, Senator Kamala Harris, won the state of Pennsylvania and earned more than 270 electoral votes in the presidential election of 2020. Harris is officially the first female vice president-elect in United States history, and the first person of color to have this title as well. This new and powerful achievement that Harris has attained has a great impact on women all across America. After many long and tough decades of women working towards this position, Harris has broken the glass ceiling.

In addition to making history with being the first African American female vice president, she also is the first in another respect. Harris will be the first graduate of Howard University, in Washington D.C., to assume the position, making her and Biden, the first vice president and president without an Ivy League degree since 1984.

Vice President-elect Harris also has experience in getting the job done. Before she was elected to the senate in 2016, Harris served as San Francisco’s attorney general from 2004 to 2011. She then became California’s attorney general for six years, starting in 2011. She also served as California’s junior senator for four years.

Women of all ages feel like they can now, more than ever, achieve anything and belong in a position of power and leadership. Now, women can begin to see faces that resemble their own. They have someone to look up to as a role model for their future. It’s hard to join an all-male team, but once a female is on it, it changes the whole game. It then gives more women a sense of belonging in a multitude of settings. Now that one woman is our vice president-elect, there will hopefully be many more to come.
Vice President-elect Harris has shared some of her thoughts to the public about important issues we are dealing with today. Harris has announced many times that she believes wearing masks is a “national standard” during this time. On matters of racial discrimination, Harris has protested and has called for the rooting out of this issue in our country.

BHS students share their ideas on how Harris has affected them as young women. Freshman Isabella Gentry said, “Having Harris as my future vice president makes me feel that there is a place for women in any field and that we do have the option to go into politics and play a strong role in government.”

Like many women in the U.S., Gentry states, “It also makes me hope that women will become more present in social issues in our country.”

Similarly, sophomore Kylie Ritter explains, “Harris motivates me and helps me because there is a female role model in my life that I can look up to. It’s so empowering to see someone who is not a white old man that has so much control over our country.”
Female role models and mentors can help encourage women to speak up, stand up for what they believe in, and perhaps achieve even more. Harris says, “The images of leadership and power that we see are overwhelmingly white and male. Sometimes we don’t even quite notice that until we see something different.” Harris has broken the gender stereotype as vice president-elect in the United States. Women everywhere now have an inspiring role model to look up to every day.