Why gender should be an election issue — not just in US, but in India too

The Trump-Harris debate to elect the upcoming United States presidential election on November 5 is centred around key issues: the economy, immigration, abortion, race, and gender. While the candidates have distinct views and policy agendas on the first three, interestingly, race and gender—closely tied to their personas—have also emerged as major issues, with gender taking on particular prominence.

Survey data from Dan Cassino, Professor of Politics, Fairleigh Dickson University (FDU) and Director of FDU Poll, shows that this election may see a record gap in voting preferences between men and women, especially between traditionally masculine men and others. Men favour Trump by 7 points, while women favour Harris by 18 points. Among men, 50 per cent describe themselves as ‘completely masculine,’ with most others identifying as ‘mostly masculine’. US voters typically associate masculinity with traits such as being aggressive, taking charge, reluctant to compromise, or apologising—qualities Trump displayed throughout his campaigns.

They also associate masculine traits with leadership, putting female candidates at a disadvantage, as it arguably did for Hillary Clinton. Perhaps that’s also why Harris is trying to demonstrate masculine traits—pointing to her career as a prosecutor and talking about owning a gun, signalling a willingness to defend her home against intruders. She is also displaying a high level of energy against the older Trump, using the very argument Trump once used against Biden and Clinton.

According to an AAPI (Asian-American and Pacific Islander) voter survey, gender representation has an even stronger influence than racial identity in shaping support for Harris. Over a third (38 per cent) of respondents said Harris’ identity as a woman was ‘extremely important,’ whereas only 25 per cent felt similarly about her racial identity as Indian/South Asian. The gender gap was also noticeable: 56 per cent of Asian-American women said it was extremely important to have more women in elected office, compared to 36 per cent of Asian-American men expressing their support to Harris. 

Dan Cassino argues that “US presidential elections are almost always masculinity contests, with candidates accusing each other of not being manly enough for the job.” In contrast, AAPI survey researchers Karthick Ramakrishnan and Sarah Sadhwani  see this as “a surprising twist to identity representation,” with Harris’ gender identity drawing particularly strong interest among Asian-American voters.

In US presidential elections, the deciding factor is not the popular vote but the electoral college, where each state is assigned a set number of votes. A candidate who wins the majority in a state receives all its electoral college votes; 270 is the magic number to secure the presidency. Much depends on swing states, where voters remain undecided about whom to vote, and the race is expected to be a very close, with a few thousand votes potentially tipping the outcome .

This raises an interesting question: What role does gender play in Indian elections? We can take pride in the fact that women and men were put on the same footing in the Constituent Assembly while deciding on the right to vote. Universal adult suffrage included all adults eligible to vote irrespective of gender, caste or religion. However, the number of women contesting election and winning remains small.

Seventy-seven years after Independence, women occupy less than 15 per cent of seats in the Lok Sabha (14.9 per cent) and just 14 per cent in the Rajya Sabha. In 19 state legislatures, women’s representation is below 10 per cent. By comparison, 25 per cent (25 women) of seats in the US Senate (upper House) and 28 per cent (151 women) in the Congress (House of Representatives) are held by women-- an improvement, though it took over 130 years for the first woman to enter the US senate. 

It is also puzzling why a country that calls itself the mother of modern democracy, has yet to elect a female President whereas several countries in Asia-- India, Sri Lanka, Pakistan, Bangla Desh and the Philippines have already had women presidents and prime ministers. Should Kamala Harris win, she would become the first female President of the US.

In India, Gender has not emerged as a significant election issue. Indian politics tends to centre around caste, minority interests, and subsidies or freebies/ guarantees. Though unstated, masculinity pervades the Indian psyche. Indira Gandhi was famously called “the only man in the Cabinet”, implying a kind of male superiority. Even today, women are often given tickets to contest elections  due to familial ties to male politicians rather than individual merit. Dynastic politics aside, women are sometimes fielded seeking ‘sympathy votes’ after a male politicians untimely death or to maintain a family’s political presence, as seen in the case of Laloo Prasad Yadav.

An issue that needs to be debated is to make gender an election issue instead of giving women ‘reservation.’  This would instil pride in women fighting as equals, and winning on merit, rather than through sympathy or reservation, and would encourage more women to contest polls. With more women excelling in higher education and outperforming men in various professions, it is time more women enter politics as we need more women leaders at all levels.

It is unfortunate that in panchayats and municipalities, where a large number of women hold office due to reservation policies, they are treated as proxies for their husbands. State governments must implement leadership training programmes to enable these women to become effective leaders.  

Regardless of the US election outcome,  Kamala Harris’ candidacy stands as an inspiring example for women in India and beyond.  Former New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Arden’s words serve as an inspiration to all women:

“One of the criticisms I have faced is that I am not aggressive enough or assertive enough, because I am empathetic, it means I am weak. I totally rebel against that. I refuse to believe that you can not be both compassionate and strong”.

(The writer is a former chief secretary, Government of Karnataka)