August 11, 2020

Alicia Tatone

By Jessica Bennett

“What vice president in U.S. history wasn’t ambitious?”

— Valerie Jarrett, a former adviser to President Barack Obama

Did anyone tell J.F.K. he was too ambitious?

In 1956, at the Democratic National Convention in Chicago, he campaigned aggressively to be vice president, said Keneshia Grant, an associate professor of political science at Howard University. His father, she noted, had even offered to pay for Lyndon B. Johnson’s run if he promised to choose his son as a running mate.

“That was no secret at all,” said Professor Grant. “And that was fine. People took him at his word.”

But when Stacey Abrams, the former minority leader of the Georgia House of Representatives, stated bluntly that she “would be an excellent running mate” to Joseph R. Biden Jr. — unapologetically making her case for the No. 2 spot on the ticket — she was criticized as being inadequately self-effacing.

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Senator Kamala Harris, one of three Black women considered a front-runner for that slot, has not actually said publicly that she wants the position. But she did of course run for president — causing at least one Democratic donor to remark that she has too much “ambition.”

She can also “rub people the wrong way,” according to Ed Rendell, the former Pennsylvania governor. And she was seen as being improperly apologetic after she excoriated Mr. Biden on an early debate stage, questioning his policies on busing, with the nerve to later laugh it off as “politics.”

“She had no remorse,” Chris Dodd, a longtime friend of Mr. Biden’s who is on his vice-presidential vetting panel, reportedly told donors.

Immodest. Ambitious. Unlikable. These are the strangely enduring criticisms that travel with women in politics, no matter how many firsts keep adding up or how numerous their congressional numbers become.

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(And they are posed to become even more numerous: New numbers from the Center for American Women and Politics at Rutgers University show that a record number of congressional races will now take place between two female candidates.)

And so, those words have reignited another tired debate about sexist double standards, as Mr. Biden slowly — very slowly — inches closer to announcing his running mate. (He is expected to announce his choice this week.)

American politics may have moved beyond a time when a female candidate would be asked if she could bake a blueberry muffin (that was Geraldine Ferraro, the first woman to be a running mate on a major party ticket, in 1984, who responded: “Sure can. Can you?”), but it surely hasn’t moved that far.

And the Black women in contention to be Mr. Biden’s running mate — which include Ms. Harris, Representative Karen Bass of California and Susan Rice, the former national security adviser to Mr. Obama — have both gender and race to contend with.

“It’s textbook in a lot of ways,” Professor Grant said. “If you are a Black woman, and you show up in a space with new ideas, asking people to be different than they have before, then you are subject to this criticism about not knowing your place, being too ambitious, wanting too much.”

There has long been a refrain that women who seek power must do it nicely. Research has shown that women can temper their ambitions by conveying warmth — because women are expected to be “warm,” so it offsets the bias — and that self-promotion is possible, but carefully, because people tend not to like immodest women.

There is an entire self-help industry devoted to this kind of bias hacking, with tips and tools for how to rise in a largely white and male-dominated corporate world where to be successful, a woman must be liked, but to be liked, she must not be too successful, her likability eroded by her professional status.

Joan C. Williams, who runs the Center for WorkLife Law at the University of California, Hastings College of the Law, has called this “gender judo”: The idea that women can counter the bias to those stereotypically “masculine” behaviors, like ambition, by exhibiting stereotypically “feminine” behaviors, like warmth or friendliness.

In other words, negotiate, but do it with a smile. Win the debate, but apologize for it later. And definitely, definitely don’t laugh.

Yet those temperament modifications have never been available in the same way to Black women — who must navigate what the activist Francis M. Beal labeled “double jeopardy” long ago.

Black women may in fact be more ambitious than white women in the corporate world — as shown in some recent studies — but they still face unequal challenges once there, including, in some cases, disproportionate sanctions for on-the-job mistakes.

In one study, “Black Women: Ready to Lead,” from the Center for Talent Innovation, a think tank, Black women reported being far more likely than white women to aspire to a powerful position and more confident in their ability to succeed once they got there.

But those women reported feeling more stalled in their careers and that their talents weren’t recognized by their managers.

Recently, Ms. Harris spoke at a conference for young Black women, subtly addressing the criticism that had been leveled at her.

“There will be a resistance to your ambition,” Ms. Harris said. “There will be people who say to you, ‘You are out of your lane,’ because they are burdened by only having the capacity to see what has always been instead of what can be. But don’t you let that burden you.”

Perhaps the good news is, it hasn’t.

Last week, the Girls Leadership Institute, a nonprofit, released a study about ambition in girls that it had been working on since Hillary Clinton’s failed presidential bid.

The study found that 48 percent of Black girls surveyed identified as leaders — the highest of all ethnic groups.

One key factor that seemed to contribute to that result: Role models.

What else is happening

Here are three articles from The Times you may have missed.

Mamie Smith recorded “Crazy Blues” with the Jazz Hounds in the summer of 1920.Donaldson Collection/Getty Images

“Music was my refuge.” 100 years ago, Mamie Smith’s ‘Crazy Blues’ represented not just a breakthrough in the mainstream recording industry, but also sparked a revolution for Black women fans. [Read the story]
“As we recommit to our values, now, more than ever, is the time to lean in to what we stand for.” McDonald’s is suing its former chief executive, Steve Easterbrook, for sexual relationships with three employees in the year before his ouster last fall and that he awarded a lucrative batch of shares to one of those employees. [Read the story]
“There shouldn’t be any shame or stigma attached.” Zomato, a global food-delivery company based in India, introduced a new policy that allows women to take time off during their periods — a bold move in tackling an age-old taboo in India. [Read the story]

Are You a Working Mom? We Want to Hear Your Pandemic Story.

It’s no secret being a working parent in the pandemic means doing multiple jobs at once. But for mothers, the burden may be crushing.

Now, with no end to the pandemic in sight — and with many schools in limbo — what will this mean for women’s livelihoods in the long-term? To their independence and ambition? To their ability to support their families?

The Times is looking for U.S.-based working mothers to document their experiences.

Interested? Click here to share your story.

This In Her Words is written by Jessica Bennett. Our art director is Catherine Gilmore-Barnes, and our photo editor is Sandra Stevenson.

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