The ‘Year of the Woman’ 2.0 is approaching

In late August on a long trip back to D.C., I found myself captivated by a podcast featuring Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) talking about her 1992 election to the United States Senate. That year is forever etched in the history books as the “Year of the Woman,” made famous by the record number of women elected to the Senate in the year following Anita Hill’s testimony to the Senate Judiciary Committee against Supreme Court nominee Clarence Thomas.

As the 15-year-old daughter of two politically active parents in 1991, I vividly remember watching long stretches of the hearings. I was captivated by Anita Hill’s courage, strength and bravery.

{mosads}However, listening to Sen. Feinstein recount this era from her vantage point 27 years later gave me an entirely new appreciation for the blatant sexism and ridicule Anita Hill endured from the all-male Senate Judiciary and the legitimate outrage by women that ensued. 

In a 1991 New York Times column, Maureen Dowd best summed up what millions of women felt at the time, quoting Democratic strategist Anne Lewis saying, “…the case had sent ‘an electric current of anger through women.’”

This “electric current of anger” turned into four women taking the bull by the horns, running for the Senate one year later, winning their elections and forever changing the face of Washington.

Fast forward to 2016. Hillary Clinton became the first female nominee of a major political party to run for the White House. Her opponent was Donald Trump, a former reality television star who had been accused of sexual harassing multiple women for decades.

The release of the, “Access Hollywood” tape where Donald Trump bragged about the ability to grab women by the genitals because he was famous was the final straw for many women and men across the country.

It appeared that the ultimate swing vote in 2016 — the majority of white college-educated suburban woman — was certainly going to vote for Hillary Clinton.

But the election didn’t yield the outcome millions of women had hoped for.

However, just like the aftermath of the Anita Hill hearings, the defeat and despair that crippled millions of women across the country was soon channeled into activism. Over 3 million women worldwide joined the Women’s March the day after president’s inauguration, which exceeded the turnout for his own festivities. And just like the post-Anita Hill hearings era, Trump’s election inspired record numbers of women to run for office.

Women channeled their activism around the #MeToo movement, which was fueled by Trump’s election to the White House, by exposing powerful men who had sexually taken advantage of women because they felt their power and stature gave them the right to do so. For the first time many women felt empowered to speak up about their own experiences because society took them seriously and took their claims to be credible. For a while, it seemed like there was no going back.

But then came Brett Kavanaugh’s nomination to the Supreme Court, and when the Senate Judiciary Committee decided to hear Christine Blasey Ford’s testimony, it felt as if we were entering the Anita Hill hearings all over again.

Surely the male members of the Senate Judiciary Committee — several of whom had sat on the same committee 27 years earlier — had learned from their past mistakes.

Surely Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) and other Republican leaders had learned from Donald Trump’s election and the #MeToo movement that circumstances have changed, that women be listened to and believed, because that is what modern-day society demands.

Despite Ford’s compelling testimony, Supreme Court Justice Kavanaugh was narrowly confirmed. Yet again that feeling of anger mixed with disbelief swept over the country. 

But much like 1991, this despair didn’t last long, and women are back to doing what they do best — rolling up their sleeves, taking matters into their own hands and getting to work. 

Polling as recent as Oct. 22 shows that a record number of women plan to turn out in the midterm elections and they favor Democrats by 25 points. Democratic candidates are shattering fundraising records, and have been all cycle. The majority of women who are challenging men for elected office are winning.

This Nov. 6 we will learn once again that hell hath no fury like a woman scorned. Bookended by the bravery and courage first shown to us by Anita Hill, by Ford and by women like Feinstein, Clinton and countless others in-between, I’ve never been more proud to be a woman working in politics today.  And I can’t wait to see what this next generation of female leaders up and down the ballot delivers.  

Adrienne Elrod is a Democratic strategist who most recently served as the director of strategic communications for Hillary for America. Elrod is a regular contributor MSNBC, CNN and Fox News.