The Glass Ceiling that Won't Break.

By Niya Bobban

Hillary Clinton cracked the glass ceiling; all Kamala Harris needed was to shatter it.

Women across America only hoped Harris would break through the longstanding barriers of inequality and underrepresentation. Her loss doesn’t just signify a missed opportunity for one woman but for millions of voices that remain unheard. Her 109 days of campaigning put up the fight toward women’s rights and true democracy for our nation.

With Kamala’s loss in the 2024 election, what does this mean for the future of women and our voices being heard? We will explore the factors of Kamala Harris’s defeat in the election and define her loss for future women of the U.S.

Harris’s main setback when running for the presidency was her affiliation with former President Joe Biden; she was unable to separate her identity from that of an unpopular president. She addressed a reform to current policies and advocated for expanding rights for minorities. Yet, many voters believed her attachment to the Biden administration and the fact that she is currently “in office” made her someone who would only continue the cycle of discrepancies within the nation. In other words, she’s part of an administration leading a nation she’s openly acknowledged as “disappointing.”

This perception from voters overshadowed her attempts to distinguish herself and advocate for progressive change, and created yet another barrier to presenting herself as a candidate who will transform America’s dissatisfied economy.

The glass ceiling stays fully intact, and Harris ends up bearing much of the blame. Future president Donald Trump’s comments against both Clinton’s and Harris’s campaign have shown a long history of misogynistic rhetoric, which contributed to the benefits of his own crusade. On social media, he has posted  “sexual references to Kamala Harris and Hillary Clinton to amplify his followers’ own hate speech.” Instead of giving back respect to his own candidates, they (aswell as the thousands of women) are recieved with prejudice and ignorance.

Trump has taken advantage of this tactic, in which completely slanders and degrades his opponents to his thousands of followers who seem blind to the underlying discrimination he supports. This new brand of politics diffused by Trump has created a nation with extreme polarization and a rise of uneducated voters. 

As a woman of color, Harris faced obstacles no male or white candidate would ever experience. But let’s not blame Harris for not being able to overcome barriers; we must realize her defeat doesn’t mean she wasn’t strong enough; it shows just how hard that ceiling is to break. It hasn’t been a struggle only she faced—it’s a reality for EVERY woman who has ever tried to redefine our limits. It’s such a frustrating double standard women, especially women of color, know too well.

We shouldn’t define her loss as a step backward for women, but instead a challenge that we can overcome and prove wrong to everyone in our nation. Kamala Harris will continue to fight for the unheard voices in our country; Kamala Harris will continue to fight for the three rights our founding fathers promised, and women deserve—our life, liberty, and pursuit of happiness. 

We need to recognize that our country has reached an all time high for political polarization; we love to point fingers, but we don’t seem to realize the true intent our politicians are fighting for. People need to educate themselves in politics, or even find out what changes they want for our nation. 

“While I concede this election, I do not concede the fight that fueled this campaign—the fight: the fight for freedom, for opportunity, for fairness, and the dignity of all people. A fight for the ideals at the heart of our nation, the ideals that reflect America at our best. That is a fight I will never give up.” –Kamala Harris’s concession speech.