The Alpha Female
My last post was titled, “The Alpha Male.” I wrote it to provide another lens through which to look at a deeply flawed Republican candidate for president who, nevertheless, is more than holding his own against his Democratic opponent.
Which brings me to said opponent, Kamala Harris, whose recent trajectory is by now familiar. First overnight attention, then overweening affection, finally the grinding halt. For weeks, try as she might, she has been unable to make any headway.
The United States of America has this in common with almost every other country: it has never had a woman at the helm. No accident. Females are still seen as less leader-like – however defined – than their male counterparts. Which is primarily why still so few women at the top of the greasy pole – in business as in government, in the military as in the media, everywhere.
Alpha males are seen as leaders in all great ape groups, including humans. Why? Because they are more readily seen as strong and strong-willed, as forceful and successful. On a largely though not entirely unconscious level, it is men much more than women who are seen as powerful – powerful enough to protect us from our enemies from without and, according to Trump, from within.
Wonder why he is concluding his campaign by demonizing immigrants? Because it enables him to be the hero who will save us. From whom? From the menacing and even murderous outsiders who became – under President Joe Biden and Vice President Harris – insiders.
Harris on the other hand is being pushed by Democratic sage James Carville to toughen up, to dominate her space, to depict herself not as a purveyor of joy but as an alpha female. He warns she needs to be “more aggressive.” He worries she lacks a “killer instinct.” He admonishes her to “hit hard – pronto.” He cautions she must, absolutely must, “scare the crap out of voters.”
No accident that the few women who have risen to the top of the national heap, and who in many ways shone in their leadership roles, were seen as exceptionally strong. Britain’s prime minister Margaret Thatcher was famously known as the “Iron Lady.” India’s prime minister, Indira Gandhi, was also called an Iron Lady, in this case by Henry Kissinger. Prime Minster Golda Meir was similarly dubbed, she was called “the Iron Lady of Israel.” Meanwhile Germany’s Chancellor, Angela Merkel, had a different sort of moniker, “Mutti Merkel.” Mother Merkel. But it too suggests a certain fierceness, in this case a mother who will do what she must to protect those for whom she is responsible.
We know by now that if women come across as being too strong it turns men off – and many women as well. Which is why threading the needle between being seen as too strong on the one hand and too weak on the other is so daunting a task. But it is not impossible. Thatcher was prime minister for over ten years. Gandhi was prime minister for almost fifteen years. Meir was prime minister for five years. Merkel was chancellor for more than fifteen years. Which suggests that once the right woman has the keys to the kingdom, she’s got a shot at transforming it, for some time to come, into a queendom.
But she’s got to get there first. Which she will never do if she grins too much and glowers too little.