The historic reckoning of the US midterm elections came hand in hand with a slew of firsts.
Keisha Lance Bottoms beat Republican billionaire Rick Jackson to become the first black female governor in the country. Gina Hinojosa became Texas’ first Latina governor and the first Democrat to win the office since 1990. Deb Haaland, the former US interior secretary, won New Mexico’s gubernatorial race to become the first female Native American governor. Peggy Flanagan, Minnesota’s lieutenant governor, is the first Native American woman to be elected to the US Senate.
Amy Acton defeated Republican Vivek Ramaswamy to become Ohio’s first female governor — despite Ramaswamy’s campaign enlisting Acton’s estranged mother, Donna Arthur, to be a part of it. Arthur’s husband was charged with raping Acton as a child, and Acton and her brother were subsequently removed from Arthur’s care. A new low, even for the notoriously misogynistic world of political smear campaigning.
Elsewhere, Amy Klobuchar became the first woman to be elected governor in Minnesota and Marsha Blackburn is the first woman to be elected as governor of Tennessee.
Building a community
On a local level, there was historic success for Allie Phillips, who was elected to the Tennessee House of Representatives, breaking a number of glass ceilings with it. The first woman elected, the first mum, the first Democrat, the first union member and the youngest woman ever elected to that house.
The story behind Phillips’ win is equally groundbreaking.
She was denied a medically necessary abortion in Tennessee due to the state’s strict ban. She had to travel almost 1,000 miles to access care in New York. When she returned, she ran for office. When she wasn’t elected, she ran again and won.
Phillips explained her decision to run with clarity: if the people making the decisions weren’t listening, she was going to do something about it. She wanted to ensure other mothers aren’t grieving their loss alone in a city they don’t know because of policies that put women’s lives at risk.
She has a TikTok account with 11.2m followers and 3.4m people watched her share the devastating news that her much-longed-for baby was not going to survive. By sharing her story on social media, Phillips didn’t simply build a following, she built a conversation around baby loss where so often shame, silence and isolation are found.
Phillips also built a community — one that got out and knocked on doors to help ensure other women do not have to face such a barbaric experience alone.
Telling stories that matter
Inspiring is such an overused word that it has almost lost its meaning. Your eyes might already be rolling. But cynicism is a trap. Not only is it the enemy of creativity, it is a comfort blanket for our own inaction.
Phillips’ story is not only moving, it is a reminder of the impact that one woman’s desire for change, even in the midst of devastating loss, can have.
These historic firsts remind us of the true power of inspiration and why telling the stories of the women shattering glass ceilings matters. A reminder of the disproportionate weight that women, especially women of colour, carry to facilitate change. And their courage to share stories in a world built to discredit them at every turn.
While we might be fuelled by the grit of the women smashing glass ceilings, we can no longer ignore the plethora of men who continue to deny that the glass ceiling exists in the first place.
Even after these midterms, 14 states have still never had a female governor and 15 have never had a female senator. The US has never elected a female president and never will, if it continues to hold women to such impossible standards.
A different race
If we want to ensure these firsts are not lasts, we must recognise that women are not running the same race. For the women who have smashed glass ceilings, the glass cliff awaits. The toxic mix of serious issues, limited resources and high expectations risk setting women up to fail.
The cost of participation in the public sphere is a price disproportionately paid by women. Yet such is our collective reluctance to solve this problem that many deny it exists in the first place.
The news cycle has swiftly moved on since McKinsey partner Chris Bradley used his LinkedIn platform to declare the “glass cliff” to be “a convenient way to always be a victim in the rain and empowered in the sunshine”. The arrogance and accountability void his comments reveal will be recognised by many women who have had the audacity to share their expertise or lived experience in any public forum.
We must stop asking women to sacrifice their economic and emotional wellbeing to the endless scrutiny that comes with any shred of public profile. Let’s recognise the weight of responsibility that comes with being the first and actively help carry the load.
So when you see women knocking on doors that should be open, don’t default to debating its very existence. Hold that door open. Because the women walking through it bring the energy of innovation and change we so desperately need.
