For feminists like me, this is uncomfortable: For one thing, I'm psyched about the prospect of the first female president. I wish the whole country were shouting it from the rooftops! No, I don't think a few individual women in positions of power are the solution to sexism, but it also seems obviously true that it's good when power is more equally shared between women and men.
And yet I also believe there is something shallow, and sometimes incredibly counterproductive, about a focus on identity. It flattens more than it layers on, and it is certainly damaging to progressive movements when identity is wielded as a cudgel or a gotcha.
Donald Trump's four years in office were such a shock to the system, and such a victory for racism and sexism that the politics of identity on the left went into overdrive. A lot of good came out of this: movements against racial injustice and sexual abuse; a broader shared vocabulary with which to talk about power and fairness.
Harris's identity-hesitancy becomes more heartening when viewed in a broader context of progress. Progress is not linear and it is often hard to measure; these "firsts" are not evidence of problems solved, but they are symbols of changing times.
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