The question of whether California U.S. Sen. Dianne Feinstein should step down reached Massachusetts this week.
Rep. Ayanna Pressley joined the small group of elected officials, mainly younger Democrats in the House of Representatives, calling for Feinstein’s resignation amid a monthslong absence from the Senate.
The 89-year-old was diagnosed with shingles and has said in a statement that she will return to work once cleared by her medical team.
Pressley
said Tuesday that, while she wishes Feinstein well in her health and recovery, “I do think that if it’s impacting her ability to do the job, I would support a resignation.”
Feinstein was sworn into the U.S. Senate in 1992 in what was deemed “The Year of the Woman,” when Americans ultimately elected four women senators and two dozen Congresswomen.
For those who remember that barrier-breaking moment, or subsequent ones of Feinstein’s political career, her public decline and the discussion swirling around her political future may strike a raw nerve.
I can’t help but wonder whether there’s a whiff of sexism to calls for Feinstein’s resignation, given the striking contrast with South Carolina U.S. Sen. Strom Thurmond. Among the multiple problematic aspects of his political career, Thurmond was widely known to have
struggled with his mental health and physical fitness. He retired only months before his death.
The “Feinstein’s future” discussion is also happening as President Joe Biden and former President Donald Trump seem to be gearing up for a rematch that no one wants. That, too, factors into my inquiry. Do women politicians lack the same space to age in power with dignity?
UMass Boston associate political science professor Erin O’Brien said that while the sexism question is one we should be examining, the ultimate question should be whether or not Feinstein’s able to do her job.
“I see slivers of sexism, but I also think that the calls for her to step aside are legitimate and don’t have to be rooted in sexism to be made,” O’Brien said, noting that Feinstein sits on the Senate’s powerful Judiciary Committee where Senate Republicans recently blocked an attempt to seat a temporary replacement. Feinstein’s absence comes in both a narrowly divided Senate and a highly partisan political climate.
If not for those factors, O’Brien said, her absence may not have prompted calls for resignation.
“Men who age in office probably do get more of a pass. And they shouldn’t,” O’Brien said, “but the Democratic agenda is being blocked by Feinstein.”
For her, the situation harkens back to the late Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg retaining her seat through the Obama administration despite declining health, which ultimately gave President Donald Trump the chance to appoint her replacement when she passed away.
“There’s a direct correlation between her holding on to that seat for too long and the Dobbs decision,” O’Brien said, referring to the Supreme Court ruling that overturned Roe v. Wade last summer.
O'Brien sees two big differences between Feinstein’s situation and Biden’s: First, he’s proven uniquely effective at unifying Democrats to win a presidential election, whereas Feinstein “is running in California, where there are plenty of quality Democratic candidates that could win her Senate seat.” And second, Joe Biden is the most important Democrat in the country when it comes to pushing the party’s agenda.
“He is the leader of the party. ... She is preventing Democratic priorities in her absence,” O’Brien said.
Without a direct comparison — or a focus group, or a highly nuanced, scientifically formulated survey assessing gender bias — it is extremely difficult to say whether or to what extent Feinstein’s being a woman is playing into the public calls for her to step down.
What is true is that how we will remember her legacy will come down to what she does next.
Very Respectfully,
Saraya Wintersmith
