Will it be different this time?

Female vice presidential candidates appeared on major party tickets in 1984 and 2008, and in 2016, a woman headed the ticket. Each time, headlines heralded the historic choice; each time, for any number of reasons, the ticket lost. Those races also gave us a window into how women running for executive office are treated in the U.S.: The candidates were more likely than men to be questioned about their spouses; their attire and looks often became a part of the story; they had to make extra effort to show they were “tough” enough to serve.

Now that Sen. Kamala Harris has become the third female VP candidate on a major party ticket in history, Politico Magazine asked some smart female political observers to tell us: How will things be different for this VP choice, for this woman, and for this race? Or has nothing changed at all? Here’s what they had to say.

‘Her demeanor, her delivery, and her personal life will be under the same microscope’
Treva Lindsey is associate professor of women’s, gender and sexuality Studies at the Ohio State University.

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‘We will likely see the knotty intersection of racism and sexism in the criticism that Harris will endure’
Oneka LaBennett is associate professor of American Studies and Ethnicity at the University of Southern California.

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‘She may very well hold the key to Biden’s win in November’
Keisha N. Blain is an associate professor of history at the University of Pittsburgh, a 2020-21 Fellow at the Carr Center for Human Rights Policy at Harvard University, and author of Set the World on Fire: Black Nationalist Women and the Global Struggle for Freedom.

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‘The general assumption that she will be the Democratic Party nominee in 2024’
Jo Freeman has published 11 books, including three on women and politics. She has been to 15 Democratic Conventions and 11 Republican Conventions.

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