Warring Women: Coney Barrett, Harris, Feinstein and the Battle for Women’s Equality
By: Sarene B. Arias
Tags: Feminism, Women, Politics, Society, Supreme Court

|Politics|Feminism|Society|

The complex dynamics now at play in the Senate confirmation hearings that began this week

Join me in taking in the view from the helicopter that now hovers over the American glass ceiling. Looking down, we can see the faces of Supreme Court nominee Justice Amy Coney Barrett, Senators Kamala Harris and Dianne Feinstein pressed to the glass, pulling one another’s hair, with society adding some oomph to the punch in the gut that is yet to come. Each women has shattered one glass ceiling after the next in order to achieve the level of success she has attained in her career thus far, and still, each is poised to delegitimize the other during the tense hearings now unfolding.

Amy Coney Barrett, Judge, beloved Notre Dame professor

If confirmed, Judge Coney Barrett will only be the fifth women ever to sit on the supreme court. That fact alone is testament to her contribution to womens’ equality in America. Just after finishing Law School, she earned a prized clerkship in the office of Justice Antonin Scalia, is recognized as an acclaimed and beloved professor at the University of Notre Dame, and has served on the bench since 2017.

Still, Coney Barrett is a bitter pill for feminist to swallow, even if she will preserve the ratio of men to women on the court following the death of feminist icon Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg. A devout Catholic, not only do her conservative views threaten the status quo on a womens’ right to choose, her church “People of Praise” preaches subservience of women to their husbands in a manner reminiscent of a time long past, or places far from Washington D.C.

A photocopy of an undated membership directory of People of Praise, obtained by The New York Times notes that Amy Barrett is a member of that community bearing the designation “handmaid.” The term, inspired by the title given to Mary, mother of Jesus in the Bible “handmaid of the Lord,” is a position of leadership for women in the community (After the publication of the book Handmaid’s Tale, which some associate with People of Praise, the community changed the title to “women leader.”)

Even “handmaids” or “women leaders” in the community are “headed” by their husbands, meaning that unlike men and unmarried women, who are guided by male “community counselors,” married women receive careful direction on aspects of life and personal choice from their husbands. The tension between the modes of empowerment recognized by the distinction “woman leader” within the People of Praise and “Supreme Court Justice” boggles the mind.

The tension between the modes of empowerment recognized by the distinction “woman leader” within the People of Praise and “Supreme Court Justice” boggles the mind.

Senator Kamala Harris, Vice Presidential Nominee

Were feminists feeling deflated by Coney Barrett’s nomination, they could draw comfort from the presence of Senator Kamala Harris on the Senate Judiciary Committee.

100-years after suffrage and following Hilary Clinton’s 2016 win of the popular vote (though not the presidency), should she be elected Vice President, Senator Harris will have the best shot at winning the US Presidency of any women in history. What is more, at a recent debate performance, she demonstrated the poise and savvy longed for by many Americans during the years of the Trump presidency, skillfully navigating a wide range of issues, not phased by the distractions and accusations of Vice President Pence.

She is, undoubtably, a powerful woman.

It is an unlucky fate then, that Senator Harris sits on the Judiciary Committee, called upon to preside over a rushed confirmation of Coney Barrett less than a month before the presidential elections. Salivating, Democrats might enjoy seeing her bring the full force of her skills as a long-time prosecutor to the proceedings. She could, if she thought it wise, no doubt, tear Coney Barrett to shreds.

She could, if she thought it wise, no doubt, tear Coney Barrett to shreds.

It is not just the general decorum of the Senate that stands in Harris’s way. She is, after all, a junior member of the committee. Were she to endeavor to show her strength, she would need to do so with the approval of, or perhaps, at the expense of, the ranking democrat on the committee, fellow California Senator Dianne Feinstein.

Senator Dianne Feinstein, Ranking Democrat, Senate Judiciary Committee

Senator Dianne Feinstein began her opening remarks at Day 1 of the hearings by noting that the matter at hand during her first ever confirmation hearings was the confirmation of the late Justice Ruth Bader Ginsberg. 27-years later, she finds herself the ranking Democrat on the committee, serving in an unfathomably complex and tense political climate.

Rich with accomplishment, of late, those years have not been kind to Senator Feinstein. Since her reelection in 2018, she is rarely present in the halls of the senate without an aide, and it has become commonplace for her office to need to make revisions to off-the-cuff remarks she may have shared while walking the halls of the Senate.

On September 23, 2020, Politico ran a story citing three unnamed democrats who were concerned that Feinstein at age 87 and the oldest member of the Senate today, would not be up to the task of leading the democratic resistance to Coney Barrett’s confirmation. Many fault her for poor management of similar proceedings two years ago, at the confirmation hearings for Justice Brett Kavanaugh. An esteemed Senator with an extraordinary record, the article quoted source after source who threaten to push her aside at the first show of weakness.

Serving six-year terms, Feinstein is not the first senator to appear impacted by the aging process. Famously, South Carolina senator Strom Thurmond served until age 101, his regular and painfully dated outbursts an expected occurrence on the Senate floor in the last years of his life. Still, in a culture in which the status of sage regularly evades aging women, it would be a travesty to witness Feinstein pushed aside in that way. Society needs her to remain a towering figure, so soon after burying her friend Justice Ginsburg.

In a culture in which the status of sage regularly evades aging women, it would be a travesty to witness Feinstein pushed aside in that way.

The legacy of patriarchy captured by the expectation held by People of Praise, that women are inherently subservient to men, generates a second rule-book by which all women are expected to play. Meritocracy still a long way off, the idea that a powerful litigator would dethrone an aging woman, whose job it is to block the nomination of a woman to the highest court is fraught to the point that it seems impossible.

What is for certain is that it is highly unlikely.

For better or for worse, these three women, having achieved unprecedented levels of power, will likely behave as good girls, who speak politely and respect their elders.

Such actions, it seems to me, are a boon for the country but a blow for feminism, unless of course these three women succeeded in communicating a message never before heard in America; that “being a good girl”, placing decency and respect over victory, are precisely what America needs in 2020, that such decency proves women’s worth as leaders, not as those who must be “headed” by men.