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Nikki Haley - the woman who has significantly trimmed down Donald Trump’s overtly substantial lead in the race for the Republican presidential nomination. Over the duration of almost a year, the former South Carolina governor and UN Ambassador for the Trump presidency has, according to polls, closed Trump’s double-digit lead down to a mere singular-digit lead in some important primary elections. Although both the Iowa caucus and the New Hampshire primary proved disencouraging for Haley, she has undoubtedly solidified a grab on the silver medal in the GOP primary as all other candidates successively called it a day.
Now, Nikki Haley is a woman of south-asian descent who was, throughout her political career, been continuously subjected to racial slurs and misogynistic attacks. Despite that, she has prevailed and came out the winner from multiple election campaigns, including that of the South Carolina House of Representatives and the race for the state’s governor seat. Thus, it goes without saying that Haley has an impressive CV to showcase as she campaigns for the grandest goal of them all - the presidency of the United States.
Naturally, in a time where women still experience structural and social barriers to running for office, any woman-in-office representation is a statement of girl power, right? After all, Haley’s success is a testimony to the political advancement that women can now pursue, albeit if only a select few of them are able to do so. We should all be applauding such a evident example of feminist progression. However, we must also be particularly careful in distinguishing between the symbolism of Haley’s accomplishments as a woman and how her policies may actually affect us.
As a hardcore Republican, Haley has a dark and relevant history of denying women’s right to bodily autonomy; namely, her loyal commitment to prevent the prevalence of abortion rights. For instance, in 2010, Haley (then a state House Representative) sponsored a bill aimed to effectively ban abortion at all stages of a pregnancy, with no exceptions for neither rape nor incest. Additionally, she voted for a similar bill in 2005, although that one did include exceptions for rape victims via the morning-after pill. In a similar fashion, she has proclaimed herself decidedly pro-life during her current presidential campaign.
After the GOP candidate debate in November, Haley added on to her statement on abortion, that we should “...focus on saving as many babies as we can, and support as many moms as we can.” An interesting statement coming from someone who, in 2019 and then as the UN ambassador, responded rather negatively to Bernie Sanders’ tweet comparing labor costs in the US to that of Finland. Specifically, Haley claimed that Finland's healthcare system was not particularly popular amongst its own population, indicating that she herself was not a fan. Interestingly enough, Finnish mothers are four times less likely to die in childbirth than American mothers. Similarly, American babies are twice as likely to die before their first birthday as Finnish babies. In other words, it seems particularly suspicious that Haley, who argued that we should be focusing on supporting moms, seems to dislike a proven-to-work healthcare system that successfully prioritizes maternity health.
The point I believe this evidence is making is that, although women representation in politics is always meaningful to break down harmful gender stereotypes, being a woman as a politician shouldn’t excuse you from a track record which evidently discourages women’s rights and advancements. Yes, Nikki Haley may very well inspire young girls to believe in their own political capability, but if her legislative pursuits also systematically hinder those girls from access to basic necessities, I’d argue that her political presence isn’t much of a game changer.
Sources
Kliff, S. (2019, March 22). Nikki Haley is wrong: Finland takes care of new moms way better than the US. Vox. https://www.vox.com/2019/3/22/18276108/nikki-haley-finland-maternal-mortality
NBCUniversal News Group. (2023, December 20). Nikki Haley’s history on abortion policy includes backing strict bans in S.C. NBCNews.com. https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/2024-election/nikki-haleys-history-abortion-policy-includes-backing-strict-bans-sc-rcna130579
CNN poll: Haley trims trump’s lead to single digits in New Hampshire. (n.d.-a). https://www.cnn.com/2024/01/09/politics/cnn-new-hampshire-poll/index.html
Encyclopædia Britannica, inc. (2024, February 4). Nikki Haley. Encyclopædia Britannica. https://www.britannica.com/biography/Nikki-Haley
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