“Behind every successful man there is a woman.”
“This is a load of bull,” I thought to myself. Hearing these words from a relative at the tender age of 11, my inner feminist was hot-headed and impulsive. Are men really that incompetent that they can’t achieve success without women – in the background and away from the limelight – holding them up? I pondered why it is that women are rarely ever acknowledged as successful and powerful, contrary to their male counterparts, who seem to possess an unquenchable thirst for fame.
Flash forward eight years. As a second-year in college, the feminist inside me sees and experiences more than 11-year-old Sravya could ever imagine. She tosses and turns at night struggling with an identity crisis, as she spends her sleepless nights thinking about whether or not she’s a “real” feminist.
For example, take when I decided I had found Kellyanne Conway to be determined, fearless and powerful even while being in a male-dominated field, all qualities I wished to someday embody. Conway was the mastermind campaign manager who put Donald Trump in the White House. Did that mean I wasn’t a feminist anymore, that I wasn’t genuine for supporting a successful woman who broke one glass ceiling by helping a tyrant build several more? I’m confused.
First-year political science student Jemma Tan echoes similar concerns.
“While I’m happy for her accomplishments in a field that’s hard for women to succeed in, I don’t think her definition of female empowerment and mine are the same,” she said. “By supporting someone who objectifies women and has been charged with sexual harassment, you are not supporting women.”
Building upon the topic of feminism, Conway shattered glass ceilings far before she took on the role of campaign manager. She was a successful woman to begin with, having graduated from the George Washington University Law School and founded a polling company called The Polling Company Inc./Woman Trend. Before being recruited to Trump’s campaign, she worked closely with Ted Cruz to raise money for the candidate by running a super PAC. As a wife and mother of four children, Conway managed – and still manages – to juggle both her role at home and her role at the White House with ease.
I don’t think it’s any coincidence that someone as misogynistic as Trump has a female campaign manager. Perhaps Trump employed a woman in order to convey the idea that he believes in women’s empowerment. It seems to have worked. In March of 2016, Trump was found to have a 73 percent disapproval rating among women. After Conway’s entrance into Trump’s campaign, results from the election showed that 42 percent of women ended up voting for Trump. Although possessing a lower approval rating than that of Hillary Clinton’s, Trump managed to win over more female voters as his campaign progressed.
Second-year political science and English student Sierra Paskins brings up an interesting point about Conway’s questionable role as a symbol of feminism in Trump’s campaign. However, she doesn’t believe this undermines Conway’s talent and success in any way.
”I do hope that his decision for choosing her as his campaign manager was, even if only a little, based on her talent, intelligence and abilities in the political field,” she said. “I believe that any successful, educated and leading woman is a symbol of feminism even if they are unaware of it.”
Even if Trump did appoint Conway as a means of upping his approval ratings among women, the rest of his actions say otherwise. He is body-shaming women left and right and attacking them for being on their periods dare they show him the slightest bit of disapproval. He dismissed sexual assault in the military as a natural phenomenon and proposed punishment as a consequence for women who opted for abortions.
Yet, he is unintentionally crafting a powerful symbol of feminism out of Conway. She’s proven that the strategy and skill she’s invested as the only female campaign manager in the history of the Republican party is equally as impressive as any other campaign manager – if not more than. Even if Trump decided to employ her and use her as a token to win over female voters, she may also be using his desire to her own advantage. Her intelligence and steadfast responses to skeptic comments about Trump enable her to shine in her own spotlight of success. Surprisingly, to me, this makes her a feminist of sorts.
Is it OK for young women like myself to see her as a role model instead of a traitor? Paskins doesn’t see why not.
“I still view her as a good role model,” she said. “She has made her way into a position that no woman has before. She worked with Cruz before she worked with Trump, and when Cruz was eliminated from the election, she switched to the winning side. It is an action that many male figures in this field do, and yet their level of success or reputation is not often questioned. I do not blame her for making a decision that anyone in politics would be smart to do.”
Paskins aspires to be an attorney in the future. Even though I want to be a physician, my status as a political science student and my interest in politics tell me to stop seeing Conway as the bad guy. After all, she’s achieved everything I’ve always heard people describe as “too much for a woman.”
It’s also justified to see her as another version of Margaret Thatcher, in the sense that she is an example of white non-feminism. One can argue that Conway held a disregard for women of color and those of lower socioeconomic status, a demographic that Trump never quite managed to appeal to, considering Trump only won 21 percent of non-white votes.
This further complicates the thought process for women who at times run into confusion regarding whether or not they can be seen as a feminist solely for their accomplishments. It also makes them question whether it’s possible to achieve that success as a woman while simultaneously paying attention to those whose voices are repeatedly ignored. But although arguable, Conway shines on her own and defines her personal version of success.
With Inauguration Day set to usher in a new age in American politics, it may make it easier to get through tomorrow’s events by seeing Conway not as Trump’s campaign manager, but simply as a successful woman and a feminist in her own right.