Opinion: It’s time to stop underestimating a woman’s competency for the presidency
By Loida Lewis
Americans of every race and every state, Black, White, Asian American, even Jamaicans in Jamaica and anti-Trump Republicans were energized when Kamala Harris stepped before the cameras to declare her candidacy for the presidency of the United States in advance of this week’s Democratic National Convention.
Within days, some $300 million was raised from donations, many from first time givers, from Americans overjoyed that they now have a young, vibrant, brilliant former prosecutor and U.S. senator running against a 78-year-old, convicted felon and sexual predator.
As an Asian American woman who in 1994 succeeded my late husband, Reginald F. Lewis, as chair and CEO of TLC Beatrice International, I was met with skepticism and doubt about my abilities. However, bolstered by the team I selected to run the multinational company, we cut costs, reduced debt and increased revenues from $1.5 billion to $2.2 billion. We then sold and liquidated the company with a 30% internal rate of return for shareholders in 2002.
Today, it is taken for granted that women can be effective CEO and run huge organizations. As my personal experience demonstrates that was not always the case.
In the same way, Americans should not underestimate Kamala Harris’ ability to run this country as president simply because she is a woman who also happens to be Black and Asian. Other nations have elected powerful women leaders like Great Britain’s Margaret Thatcher, Germany’s Angela Merkel, Israel’s Golda Meir, India’s Indira Gandhi, and Pakistan’s Benazir Bhutto. Even the Philippines has twice elected woman presidents — Corazon Aquino and Gloria Macapagal Arroyo.
And with the addition of Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, we have an even more potent team. Both are proven and experienced executives who will be good for the economy and our collective mental health. We’ll be able to sleep soundly at night knowing that capable people are running the country, which was not the case from 2016-2020, witness Trump’s threats to pull out of NATO, his offer to buy Greenland, his prescription of horse medicine to protect against Covid 19 and then his advice to people to inject disinfectant to cure it.
And the list goes on. Do we really want to go back to that? The Harris-Walz ticket will lead us forward into the future where Americans can be proud of who they are and what their country stands for and not get dragged back into the everyday chaos that made this nation, a beacon of hope for the rest of the world, seem like a banana republic.
It is high time for the United States to elect a strong and competent woman who has served as vice president for three and a half years to the position of president.
Loida Lewis is chair, Reginald F Lewis Foundation and chair, U.S. Filipinos for Good Governance and an author. This piece was published in the August 20 issue of Crain’s Chicago Business.
