Three Women to Watch

When Ketanji Brown Jackson was confirmed last week as the first Black woman to serve on the U.S. Supreme Court, the visual image of President Joe Biden flanked by Judge Jackson, Vice President Kamala Harris and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi was a vivid reminder of the how female political leaders have gradually increased their presence at some of the highest levels of our nation’ government. But three other female leaders, on three different continents, have taken steps in the last several days to impact U.S. and global politics to an even greater degree.

The first was Idit Silman, a previously little-known conservative member of Naftali Bennet’s Yamina party who by resigning her position in Bennet’s razor-thin majority coalition, has set the stage for the next upheaval in Israel’s government. Bennett’s coalition has been resting on pillars of sand since its inception, and it’s been reasonable to assume that at some point the precarious unity would crumble, once it was no longer possible to paper over differences on life-or-death issues like terrorism and security.

But few would have predicted that the issue that could lead to Bennett’s government falling would be Passover rituals. The precipitating event that drove Silman away from Bennett was a dispute over which types of food would be permitted inside hospitals during Passover. But her disconnect had been simmering for some time over cultural divisions such as access to the Western Wall and abortion, and her resignation leaves the Israeli government with no clear direction forward at a critical time in national and global politics.

Le Pen has little in common with either Silman or Cheney. But all three will play a vital role in world affairs at a time of great upheaval and uncertainty.

Meanwhile, here in the U.S., embattled Representative Liz Cheney has announced historically high fundraising numbers in her re-election campaign to hold onto Wyoming’s lone House seat. Cheney was one of ten Republican House members to vote to impeach Donald Trump, she serves as the co-chair of the congressional investigation into the events of January 6 and has called Trump a “clear and present danger” to American democracy. 

Trump is not a fan. He has endorsed challenger Harriet Hageman, who is also being supported by dozens of Cheney’s House colleagues and has shot ahead in early polling for the state’s August primary. But pre-Trump Washington Republicans have not only stuck with Cheney, they are using this race as their first attempt to regain control of the party that Trump hijacked from them. Cheney’s father, former Vice President Dick Cheney, has mobilized Bush-era Republicans on his daughter’s behalf, and the GOP establishment has poured immense amounts of money into the campaign. Add in the fact that Wyoming has an open primary, which will allow Democrats and independents to cross over to vote for Cheney over her Trump-backed opponent, and it’s clear that the outcome of this one campaign could have an outsized effect on the 2024 presidential election and the party’s future for years to come.

Then over the weekend came the news that Marine Le Pen, the nationalist conservative firebrand of France’s right wing, has advanced to that country’s runoff elections against current Prime Minister Emmanuel Macron. When the two faced off against each other five years ago, Macron crushed Le Pen by roughly a 2-1 margin. But on Sunday, Macron finished ahead by only a few percentage points and early polls suggest that Le Pen is very much within striking distance.

Regardless of the final outcome, Le Pen’s enhanced stature suggests that a populist isolationism and hostility toward international engagement is taking hold in France as it has in the U.S., Great Britain and other Western democracies in recent years. At a time when a battered NATO alliance is holding together in support of Ukraine in that country’s war with Russia, the possibility of a nativist France could be an immense blow to international cooperation against Vladimir Putin.

Le Pen has little in common with either Silman or Cheney. But all three will play a vital role in world affairs at a time of great upheaval and uncertainty. We’ll find out soon if and how they navigate these challenges differently than male politicians have for the last many millennia.

Dan Schnur is a Professor at the University of California – Berkeley, USC and Pepperdine. Join Dan for his weekly webinar “Politics in the Time of Coronavirus” (www/lawac.org) on Tuesdays at 5 PM.