This is a historic moment! Having a female president in the White House is within our reach.
Join What Will It Take‘s special election series as we uplift valuable stories, crucial resources, and conversations with our time’s most inspiring thought leaders dedicated to this goal. The actions we take together will help turn our vision for having a woman president into a reality and pave the way for more women and diversity in leadership.
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What Will It Take to Make a Woman President?
Here’s how we can make it happen...
LEARN
Get the facts about the biases and barriers women candidates face and how to counter them
ACT
Find out how you can take action to make a difference in this election
VOTE!
Make sure you and your friends and family are registered and ready for the polls
About What Will It Take and Founder Marianne Schnall
Prompted by a question from her eight-year-old daughter in 2008 — “Why haven’t we ever had a woman president?” — Marianne Schnall has become an outspoken voice on women’s leadership as the author of What Will It Take to Make A Woman President?: Conversations About Women, Leadership and Power, which was recommended by Beyoncé. She is the founder of Feminist.com, a widely published journalist, interviewer, speaker, podcast host, and author and has interviewed some of the most influential activists, politicians, and thought leaders of today, including Gloria Steinem, Oprah Winfrey, Anita Hill, Jane Fonda, President Jimmy Carter, Jane Goodall, and many others.
As an extension of the book’s goal to advance women’s leadership across all sectors of society, Schnall founded What Will It Take Movements to act as a connective tissue bringing together existing stakeholders and champions of women’s leadership across industries on a single platform to foster collaboration and coordination.
ShiftMakers Election Series Podcast
The ShiftMakers podcast special election series “What Will It Take to Make a Woman President? 2024” features host Marianne Schnall’s new conversations with thought leaders on key issues connected to the 2024 election, as well as timely archival content from her high profile interviews from her book What Will It Take to Make a Woman President? This series explores themes around the challenges and opportunities Kamala Harris will face and what we can all do to help achieve the historic milestone of electing a woman president and paving the way for more women and diversity in leadership.
In this introductory episode of our special election series, host Marianne Schnall shares how her young daughter’s question, “Why haven’t we ever had a woman president?” led to Schnall interviewing some of today’s most respected voices on women’s leadership for her 2013 book What Will It Take to Make a Woman President? Now, with Kamala Harris’ run making the themes around electing a woman president more timely than ever, listen to insights from Anita Hill, Gloria Steinem, Congresswoman Barbara Lee, and New York Times columnist Nicholas Kristof on the importance of having more representation and diversity, Kirsten Gillibrand and Cecile Richards on protecting women’s rights, Nancy Pelosi and President Jimmy Carter on the need for more women in Washington, and many other voices and topics.
Host Marianne Schnall shares highlights from her recent conversation with former Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi who, being a trailblazer herself as the first woman Speaker, offers her insights on the upcoming election and the Kamala Harris campaign (3:00), as well as what it will take — and what it will mean — for Harris to be elected (9:30 & 15:15). Pelosi also discusses her new book, The Art of Power (11:46), offers advice for women leaders (13:48), and reflects on her time in Congress and what she wants to be remembered for (18:10).
Episode 3: A Conversation with Anita Hill
As the country is poised to possibly elect our first woman president who is also a woman of color, host Marianne Schnall asks law professor and activist Anita Hill to share her insights on the historic moment we’re in. Hill discusses the engagement she’s seeing from women and the younger generation in this election (3:10), the sexism and racism VP Harris has been facing (11:31), how our perceptions of leadership are evolving (16:09), the importance of diversity in leadership and politics (22:57), the significance of Black women leaders throughout history (20:08), her advice for young people today (35:14), and much more.
Watch the video
Host Marianne Schnall takes a historical look at the feminist trailblazers and political milestones that helped advance women and chart the course to this pivotal moment. As we approach the 2024 election and the possibility of electing our first woman president seems closer than ever, this episode pulls from Marianne’s new and archival interviews to share insights and stories from women who helped pave the way, including quotes from Carol Moseley Braun, Nancy Pelosi, Madeleine Albright, Pat Schroeder, Barbara Lee, Gloria Steinem, Kirsten Gillibrand, Nicholas Kristof, Kay Bailey Hutchison, Brittany Packnett Cunningham, Cecile Richards, Kimberly Peeler-Allen, Glynda Carr, Melissa Etheridge, and Maya Angelou.
In this powerful conversation with host Marianne Schnall, Congresswoman Jasmine Crockett, U.S. House of Representative for Texas’ 30th district and co-chair of the Harris-Walz campaign, shares her perspectives and wisdom on a number of timely topics related to the upcoming election and beyond, including: what it would mean to elect our first woman and woman of color president (3:15); what’s at stake for women in this election (10:28 & 27:23); why it’s so important for everyone to make their voices heard by voting (12:05); advice and encouragement for women interested in running for office (18:33); the importance of diversity in leadership (17:18 & 22:00); the significance of Black women’s political power from the past and heading into the future (23.36); and more.
Congresswoman Barbara Lee, who is the highest-ranking Black woman appointed to Democratic Leadership and has served in Congress for over 25 years, talks with host Marianne Schnall about the upcoming election, sharing what she imagines her mentor Shirley Chisholm would feel about this moment where we have a woman of color on the ballot for president (6:31), what doors that would open up for women and girls (3:37), why having Black women’s perspectives in leadership is so important (8:35), what we can do to get more women and diversity into politics (11:45), her call to action (14:30), what she wants to be remembered for (18:58) and more.
Host Marianne Schnall speaks with political and voting rights activist María Teresa Kumar, founder and president of Voto Latino, the largest Latinx voter registration and advocacy organization in the country. Kumar has many insights to offer on the upcoming election, including what it would mean to elect our first woman and woman of color president (2:28), what the drivers are for Latino voters (12:51), the roles traditional media and social media are playing (7:40), her take on the status of women in this moment (10:06), and more.
Host Marianne Schnall shares a collection of insights on “What would it mean for the U.S. to finally elect a woman president?” from her recent interviews with an esteemed group of thought leaders about Kamala Harris’s historic run for President. They each share their perspectives on what the possible impact of finally breaking that glass ceiling would be (1:23), how it could open doors for women and girls (5:46), and also broaden our cultural perceptions of leadership across generations (13:12). They also elaborate on the potential global impact of a Harris Presidency (16:31), what it would mean for the U.S. to join the ranks of other nations who have women heads of state (17:44), and much more. With quotes from Ted Bunch, Glynda Carr, Jasmine Crockett, Anita Hill, Carol Jenkins, María Teresa Kumar, Barbara Lee, Kimberly Peeler-Allen, Nancy Pelosi, Ai-jen Poo, and Erin Vilardi.
LEARN
Women running for political office typically face additional barriers and biases that their male counterparts do not. Here are some examples to be aware of and ways to counter them.
Gender Bias
Although we’ve made some progress, there are still deeply ingrained, often unconscious, gender biases and stereotypes in our culture that can prevent us from seeing women as leaders. This leads to women candidates being held to different standards, judged more harshly and having their qualifications questioned.
Sexist & Racist Media Coverage
Historically, when women run for political office, they receive sexist media coverage, as we saw when Hillary Clinton ran for president. Not only has Kamala Harris already encountered some of this, she has been subjected to racist comments as well. Studies show that media coverage is less positive for women leaders than men and often focuses on—and scrutinizes—a female candidate’s appearance, not to mention an onslaught of other forms of sexist and racist personal attacks.
Fundraising
Studies show that female candidates have more difficulty securing campaign funds. And even if women candidates are able to raise funds comparable to their opponents, they’ve likely have had to spend more time and effort to do so, which means they’ve had less time to focus on other important areas of their campaign. Donating to women candidates is crucial in helping them get elected.
Speak Out
Let’s take action to help counter the barriers and biases women candidates face.
★ Use your voice and platforms to hold individuals and media outlets accountable and call out any sexist, racist, or biased information
★ Learn how to challenge biased reactions to women candidates using Lean In’s Hear That? Say This tool.
★ Know how to spot disinformation and AI-generated content and report it, and do your own fact-checking. Here are some helpful resources:
• All In Together: Tracking Gendered and Race-Base Attacks on Vice President Harris
• 8 recommendations for countering misinformation
• How to report misinformation on social media
• Elections and Politics: Ways to avoid the spread of false info on social media
★ Be a conscious consumer: don’t subscribe or support media that doesn’t present fair, accurate, and unbiased coverage.
What Will It Take Election Series
Noteworthy Articles
Guest Essay by Hillary Clinton: How Kamala Harris Can Win and Make History
The New York Times
How will sexism impact Harris’s presidential campaign?
By Meredith Conroy | ABC News
Opinion: Black Female Leaders Respond To Kamala Harris’ Rise With Optimism: ‘This Is Our Moment’
By Glynda C. Carr | The Huffington Post
Will American Women Rock the System and Elect Our First Woman President?
By Pat Mitchell | Pat Mitchell Media
‘It’s our time’: As Harris accepts the nomination, many women say a female president is long overdue
By Lisa Mascaro | The Associated Press
The Making of a Transformational Leader
By Pat Mitchell | Pat Mitchell Media
Why Democrats Stopped Asking if a Woman Could Win the White House
Jennifer Medina | The New York Times
Kamala Harris is making one big strategic break from Hillary Clinton
By Elena Schneider and Holly Otterbein | Politico
Hillary Clinton connects 2024 to 2016 — and history
By Jennifer Gerson and Amanda Becker | 19th News
ACT
This moment requires us to do more than show up to cast our vote on election day. We need to mobilize, organize, and take action every day leading up to November to make this happen.
Here are some ways to get involved:
★ Donate to Harris’s campaign to help close the fundraising gap and achieve the historic milestone of electing the first woman president
★ Volunteer to text-bank, phone-bank, or door-knock to help educate and mobilize voters
★ Organize a local fundraiser or host an event
★ Use your voice, platforms, and networks to spread the word, inspire action, and have constructive conversations with your friends, family, neighbors, and community
★ Find out about local and online training sessions and events
★ Call out sexist or racist media coverage and election-related disinformation
★ Find more actions, advice, and inspiration for things you can do in our piece 15 Leaders Share Their Calls to Action Leading Up to Election Day
VOTE!
Use and share these voting resources to make sure you and others are registered and ready to vote on November 5. Remember that in addition to voting for president, there are many other important local elections and measures on the ballot this year. Your vote matters, so make sure your voice is heard on the issues you care about!
Political Leadership Organizations
There are many organizations working to promote and advance women’s political leadership leading up to the election and beyond. Here are some to check out.
For more organizations, visit the Political Leadership section of our Resources page.
Additional Resources
We plan to further develop this project leading up to the election and beyond. If you are interested in partnering, supporting or sponsoring this initiative, please contact us. Thank you!
This Special Election Initiative is in partnership with Feminist.com.
