This year’s election was an exhausting process, and although it started off slowly, it ended with a historic conclusion. 

Joe Biden’s hopeful-looking presidency will be capitalized upon by Kamala Harris, who, in addition to being the first Black and South Asian person in vice presidency, is also the first woman to hold the title. 

My enthusiasm, and frankly disbelief, over having a woman hold a seat in such an important administrative position is present, as is my need to criticize Harris because she’s a politician. 

However, there is a sort of blockage that keeps me and many other women from doing so, and it’s the fact that she is the first female vice president of the United States. She is a Black and South Asian woman now sitting in the same historic seat as the 45 White men before her. 

We, as American women, are so deprived of women in such high administrative positions that it feels as though we can’t pick and choose; rather, we must accept the one who managed to climb to the top. 

Harris is by no means perfect and has a past involving various decisions I have problems with. however, like most politicians, she seems to have observed public opinion and changed her views and actions to meet that of the majority. 

She has been hypocritical in her actions, such as her past decision to admit transgender women into men’s prisons, which goes directly against her now-feminist viewpoints. She has also voted twice to block federal funding for abortions. 

Despite this, criticism toward Harris by left-wing media is uncommon and overshadowed by social media posts and statements that define her as a hero for feminism, for women of color and for the little girls who have never seen a female vice president before. 

Although these factors are true, incredibly important and shouldn’t be dismissed, the uncommonness of Harris’ situation downplays the content of her character. 

In a perfect world, Kamala Harris would be the feminist that the media sees her as, fighting for equal pay, for healthcare and for everything women have seen threatened under the Trump administration. I want to see her fight for LGBT rights and the rights of the trans women whose trust she previously lost. 

The reality is that we won’t see what her newfound position of power means for women until her inauguration. I hope she does not feel the need to silence herself and become the shadow of the president that some will soon paint her as. 

The women of this country cannot continue to live under the normality of exclusively White men in positions of power. A compromise should eventually be met with the pairing of both Harris’ position as a first and her legislative decisions. 

It is not to be forgotten that she represents all women of America who have been under the rule of White men for years, but we must hold her accountable for her decisions and for her past. 

I don’t want to have to settle for another female politician simply because she’s female — I want her choices to align with the greater good of the country and its most vulnerable individuals, and for my own voice to be heard through hers. I want to root for an American woman because she makes me proud to be one.