Last week, Kamala Harris became the first woman to serve as vice president. No matter your political alignment, it’s hard to deny the momentous nature of the occasion. A nation that once denied suffrage and basic legal rights to women has progressed to the point of electing one to the near-pinnacle of our federal governance. Media has reveled in her new status — marking her as a role model for girls throughout the globe. The adulation has been unceasing.
In his presidential victory speech, Joe Biden proclaimed his honor to serve with Harris and lauded her achievement as a representative for America’s women. And then, on his first day in office, he managed to undermine America’s women while Harris nodded along.
Biden signed an executive order allowing biological men who identify as women to both compete in women’s sports and access our lockers and dressing rooms. It wasn’t a shock — everyone expected this would happen. Biden himself promised us he’d take this sort of action multiple times on the campaign trail, and top Democrats have thrown in their support. But the most disappointing part is that this happens so soon on the heels of what should have been a milestone for female empowerment — the ascension of Kamala Harris to her position as vice president.
Conservative women have long held that the content of Harris’s policies matters more than her gender. And it didn’t take long for it to become obvious why we weren’t so enthusiastic. Harris, woman though she may be, isn’t in our corner. This was obvious in Biden’s executive order, one she supports.
Of course, the logic of Biden’s “woke” order is clearly lacking. By allowing any biological man to compete in women’s sports, and by branding any objection to such a consideration, as “discrimination,” Biden forced the nation to take a step back from guaranteeing equal opportunity for both sexes.
Sports, especially school sports, are an important way for both boys and girls to compete in an instructional environment as a pivotal aspect of their moral and physical education. And for girls, sports are an important part of their formation into independent adults. Data from the Women’s Sports Foundation shows that “High school girls who play sports are less likely to be involved in an unintended pregnancy; more likely to get better grades in school and more likely to graduate than girls who do not play sports.” According to the same report, girls and women who play sports also enjoy “higher levels of confidence and self-esteem and lower levels of depression.”
It seems like a far-too-terrific thing to be stripped from women, but that’s what Biden did. Indeed, it is nearly impossible for girls to compete fairly with biological men. Across the board, men have the ability to gain much greater muscle mass, and although exceptions do exist, the vast majority of men will be stronger than even the strongest of women. The fact that male and female sports exist separate from one another is not due to a sexist ploy to segregate based on gender, but a healthy view of the reality of the varying physical capabilities of men and women.
Female sports are a tremendous source of empowering competition that, sadly, too many women and girls will miss as the Biden administration caves to the woke mob. As Wall Street Journal columnist Abigail Shrier put it, “A new glass ceiling was just placed over girls.”
Biden’s order, too, forces locker rooms to allow biological men into those set aside for women. Schools that fail to comply risk losing their federal funding. Biden’s order claims that their motivation is to, “prevent and combat discrimination on the basis of gender identity or sexual orientation,” but in reality, the order would only hurt women, leaving them vulnerable to exploitation as they are denied basic privacy while undressing. Once more, the possibility of hurting the feelings of a biological man is worse than provoking the intense discomfort of a biological woman. Another “win” for the gentler sex!
The irony here is so clear that everyone can see it, even if they choose not to acknowledge it. After all, it seems the progressives in charge aren’t even trying to hide how cheap their words are. Joe Biden and his female vice president claim to have the good of women and girls at heart. Yet they’re disregarding the issues that truly affect our well-being. The mere presence of a female individual in a high office is essentially meaningless if this woman is a part of an administration that works against us. And if this executive order is anything to go off of, things aren’t going to get better for America’s girls — at least as long as this administration is around.
For many women who will now be locked out of female sports, forced to feel extreme discomfort in the dressing room, and told to deal with it to make biological men feel good, the “feminist success” of Kamala Harris is just what we always suspected it would be: another empty promise for women.
Sarah Weaver is a Young Voices contributor.