Heather Cox Richardson believes women’s participation in democracy is more important now than ever before.
“If there’s one thing that strikes me about this moment, it is both the truly extraordinary misogyny of this moment and the extraordinary efforts of American women to take up a place in American society and turn back that misogyny in the attacks on American democracy,” said Richardson, professor of history at Boston College.
Students and community members filled the Heights Room on Tuesday afternoon to hear Richardson share her perspective on the American government in an event named after her best-selling novel, Democracy Awakening: Notes on the State of America.
Richardson said she believes American democracy is in danger, especially for women.
“I would like to suggest today that it is not an accident that the current attempt to overthrow democracy presents itself as an attack on American women, because American women created the modern American state,” Richardson said.
An expert on Western American history, Richardson highlighted misconceptions about the historical role of women in the American West and how their stories reflect a national underappreciation of women’s influence.
“The real American West was centered around women,” Richardson said. “It was a West of political reform, and it was one that focused on norms, rules, and education.”
Richardson also emphasized how, contrary to popular belief, American civic life has always relied on the contributions of minorities.
“American mythology had always privileged white men, but the country had never functioned without the full participation of everyone in the community,” Richardson said.
Richardson added that promoting community-based politics is central to solving some of the problems the United States faces, citing the Harris-Walz campaign’s rhetoric at the Democratic National Convention as an example.
“You saw Vice President Harris at that convention reject the identity politics for which the Democrats have been known for since at least the 1970s and instead embrace community,” Richardson said. “She talked about community—often a female-based community.”
Richardson contrasted Kamala Harris and Tim Walz’s community-based campaign with the authoritarian approach taken by Republicans.
“Within America we are choosing between two visions of government now,” Richardson said. “One based on an old concept of government, based on economic relationships that a few men can dominate, or, on the other hand, a concept of government based in the reality of a community in which all of us have lived but not recognized in our government,” she said.
With just five weeks until the 2024 presidential election, Richardson encouraged the American people to recognize the power of the female vote.
“I really don’t see how you look at where we are in the United States today and not see the centrality of women’s participation in government as central to how things are going to come out,” Richardson said.
