Kamala Harris’s historic candidacy—in which she, if elected, would become not only our first woman president but also our first Black and South Asian woman president—has highlighted a reality we often don’t focus on enough: the stark inequalities around women in politics. While we have made great strides, especially with a history where women at one point in this country didn’t even have the right to vote, the truth is that in addition to never electing a woman president, the numbers illuminate a concerning lack of representation. For instance, although women make up 50.5% of the U.S. population, they make up only 28% of Congress, there are only 12 female Governors and 32.% of state legislatures are women. And these numbers become even more glaring when you factor in women of color or other diversity indicators; for example, the U.S. has never had a Black female governor.
With this in mind, and with the U.S. population becoming more diverse than ever, it feels important to look at what it means and why it matters to have more women, people of color, LGBTQIA+ and other people from historically underrepresented and marginalized groups in leadership positions and at decision making tables in politics and beyond.
To explore this topic further, I recently asked an esteemed group of thought leaders to share their perspectives, particularly in relation to this historic political moment with a multiracial woman on the ballot for president. Here’s what they had to say when I asked, “Why are diversity and representation in leadership important, including having women in top leadership positions?”
Featuring: Anita Hill, María Teresa Kumar, Jasmine Crockett, Gloria Steinem, Gretchen Whitmer, Nancy Pelosi, Carol Jenkins, Glynda Carr, Erin Vilardi, Reshma Saujani, Ted Bunch and Kimberly Peeler-Allen
“It’s important because the world that I grew up in was sort of stereotyped. We were set to believe that there was one way to define the family. There was one way to define relationships, marriage. There was one way to define any number of things that we now understand are being challenged. There was one way to think about race. And now we understand that there are multiple ways, because race gets embodied in different ways. So we need contributions to the thinking because the needs that people have are diverse, and we need people who can think about what those needs are. The needs for leadership, the needs for services, the need for governance and being participants in democracy are all shaped by our experiences, and we need people with diverse experiences in leadership who understand that. That’s why I think it’s important. Our leaders need to understand that there is not any solution that will fit everybody. There’s no one-size-fits-all solution for any particular problem that I know of in this society today, whether it’s economic problems or social problems or problems with the criminal justice system or problems around reproductive health—and certainly no one solution around racial justice. But we can get to the right solutions if we have a diversity of thinking and acting about them.” —Anita Hill | Law Professor at Brandeis University
“Oftentimes people ask, ‘Why does diversity matter? What does this moment mean in time?’ And what we fail to recognize is that if we were to take a peek at who our kindergarten class is today, they are Kamala Harris; the largest cohort of kindergartners are bicultural, multicultural children. She represents the future that’s already born. And when you have someone such as Kamala Harris, that is, yes, a woman, yes, biracial, she also is able to go into rooms and identify issues from multiple perspectives. And something I often say when people say, ‘Well, why does diversity matter?’ I remind folks that in 2018, we had the largest participation in the midterm elections in our nation’s history, and we brought in the most diverse House of Representatives, the most women, the most veterans, the youngest class, the most African Americans, the most Latinos. And as a result, if you saw what that legislative body did, they negotiated 400 pieces of legislation that’s really the blueprint of the 21st century. It talked about codifying Roe versus Wade, making sure that we had gun reform, that we addressed climate injustice, the list went on. And it was that diverse perspective that also ushered in Kamala Harris, then senator, to help identify and address a lot of these pieces of legislation. And that is what diversity means. It’s recognizing that if we believe in a democracy and our democracy is powered by the vote, and our vote is a multicultural one, then our issues must be established by a body of leaders that reflect us.” —María Teresa Kumar | Founder and President and CEO of Voto Latino
“I think one of the things that they’ve not really talked about as diversity, equity, and inclusion has been demonized is the fact that we all bring something different to the table. I oftentimes go out and I ask people, ‘How many of you have a finance background?’ And I ask them, ‘Do you want a diverse portfolio or not?’ And everybody obviously raises their hands. They want diversity in their portfolio. That’s because there are just certain areas in which certain stocks will perform stronger, and then there are other areas in which they’ll be weaker. But wherever they’re weak, there’s probably somebody else that’s strong in that area. That’s what diversity does for us: it maximizes our strength. So it is important that we have people of color who come from different backgrounds. It is important that we have women and members of the LGBTQIA community. It is just important that we have people with different experiences that are coming together collectively to be a voice for the entirety of the country. Because when we look at the country and the types of policies that we should have, they should be policies that are reflective of who we are. We are not a monolith; we come from all walks of life and we are incredibly diverse. We are the most diverse in the world, and our leadership should be reflective of that.” —Congresswoman Jasmine Crockett | U.S. Representative
“Up to now, we’ve been ignoring the talents of half the country. That alone should keep us looking to all the people, not just half, in the future. It’s been a long time since I and others ran as delegates pledged to Shirley Chisholm as a presidential candidate in 1972, and even longer since Victoria Woodhull ran for the Presidency in 1872. Now, I hope we’ve begun to learn that we have not been living in a democracy. Democracy is only realized when all adults are able to express our opinions and use our talents. Half this country is female, and half is composed of people of color. Until those exclusions are gone, we are not living in a true democracy. Whenever we see a decision-making body, it should represent the experience of the people who are affected by those decisions. That should be common sense, but from corporate boards to state legislatures, it’s still far from common.” —Gloria Steinem | Author, Activist
“If you don’t have women leaders in the room, then you’ve got a real problem. We bring a different perspective to the table than men, and more diverse perspectives means we can get more done for more people.” —Gretchen Whitmer | Governor of Michigan
“The beauty is in the mix. You have to have diversity of opinion at the table, whether it’s men and women, people of color, young people, LGBTQ, you have to have diversity at the table—it’s absolutely essential. It’s what our founders had in mind. When they said, ‘E pluribus unum: from many, one,’ they couldn’t possibly imagine how many we would be or how different we would be from each other, but they knew we had to strive for unity, and for that unity we have to all be at the table.” —Nancy Pelosi | U.S. Representative, Former Speaker of the House
“If you’re going to use the word democracy, that’s what it means. You cannot have a democracy when you have excluded women, people of color, and different sexual orientations. So many people are still excluded. So this is a breakthrough with one person: we get a woman, a Black person, a South Asian person, and somebody who supports LGBTQ rights and who supports immigrants and who has a mindset that is inclusive as opposed to discriminatory. We have to have that inclusion and in much greater numbers.” —Carol Jenkins | Activist, Journalist and Board Chair of ERA Coalition
“I believe that when you have a diverse decision making table, it makes better decisions. I usually go back to an example that still just sticks out to me. In 2018, we elected the largest number of Black women to the House of Representatives at the same time. It was five amazing Black women: Congresswomen Lucy McBath, Lauren Underwood, Ilhan Omar, Jahana Hayes, and Ayanna Pressley, and they were sworn in the year before the global pandemic. Enter the global pandemic. Who better to be part of decision making tables while we were grappling with Covid-19, educating our young people at home and having local and state governments struggling to make their budgets than a public health professional and nurse, Lauren Underwood? It was also 2020 when you saw a George Floyd murder and the uprising after that. What better person to be at a decision making table than a mother of a slain Black boy, Lucy McBath? Ilhan Omar, during a Trump presidency with a Muslim ban, is a woman who led with her experience as a Somalian refugee. And then, as our state and local governments were struggling to determine how they were going to govern on the local level, what better two people to serve than a state legislator, Ilhan Omar, and a city council member Ayanna Pressley? And rounding that out is Jahana Hayes, who was not only a public school teacher, but actually was the Teacher of the Year. So just who they were and why they ran for office, they were unique in that body at a time. Partisanship shouldn’t have mattered because their leadership and their experience and their qualifications from their career trajectories were benefit adds for that decision making table.” —Glynda Carr | Cofounder, President and CEO of Higher Heights
“I think the country and the world really know the untapped political power of women, the untapped political potential of asking women to run for public office, to serve on advisory boards, to get appointments. We literally make government better. And I think no matter how you feel about individuals that have gotten elected, we see it not only in this country, in our local offices, we see it globally. From 2016 to now, we have all the research, we understand the political power of women. We tend to out hustle our male counterparts: we’re signing more bills, we’re putting more bills into law, we’re co-sponsoring more bills. At a congressional level, we’re often bringing more money home to our districts. You also find, and I think we’ll see it as we’re looking at some of these women’s majorities, that things like budgets pass more on time, so the sort of efficiencies and operations for healthy democracy, for healthy government. And then we’ve long seen this from when women first get into public office, that they put the issues of women and families on the agenda.” —Erin Vilardi | Founder and CEO of VoteRunLead
“Women are compassionate. Women both lead and cast their votes in a way that’s bigger than their own self-interest. Women are consistently moved by their lived experiences and the stories of hardship they hear. Their actions are driven by their values, and that’s something we could use more of in politics.” —Reshma Saujani | Founder and CEO of Moms First
“Whether it’s leading a country or leading a business or anywhere that people are brought together, when we embrace a representation that’s diverse in leadership, I think we also enrich our society, certainly by including voices that have been historically marginalized. That’s certainly true in the United States. I believe it helps us all and it fosters leadership in a way that reflects the real world, which is diverse and multifaceted.” —Ted Bunch | Cofounder and CDO of A Call to Men
“It’s beneficial for all of us because the more different life experiences that are around decision making tables, the better decisions that are made that uplift more people, that touch more lives. In our 248 years, the majority of our leadership has been white and male and, frankly, affluent. So to be able to have a woman of color who comes from very humble beginnings, and she talks about the fact that her mother wasn’t able to buy a house until she was in high school, that changes the conversation of what it is to have had to work through high school, work through college, or having to be left with a caregiver around the corner rather than formal daycare or all the afterschool activities. That just changes the experience. And then also to lead in a moment where we’re still experiencing the double bind of being a woman and a woman of color, and the assumptions about your capabilities are still very prevalent all across the country, not just in government, but in all levels of leadership. Having someone who has those different types of experiences allows for better decisions because there are more people that will be touched by that expansive life experience at the table.” —Kimberly Peeler-Allen | Cofounder of Higher Heights
No matter what the outcome of this election, Kamala Harris has already broken through many important barriers, including being the first Black and South Asian woman to accept a major political party’s nomination for president. Perhaps it will serve as inspiration to all of us to continue the momentum to further increase diversity and representation in politics and across all industries, which, as the above leaders have so powerfully articulated—and as studies have shown—leads to better outcomes that benefit everyone and inches us closer to a more equitable, just world.