‘A powerful moment for Indian American women’

Looking at the rise of two Indian American women, Kamala Harris and Usha Vance in presidential politics, a fellow woman of Indian descent feels pride at a “powerful” moment in history.

For Priya E. Mammen, an emergency physician and public health specialist in Philadelphia, a “marker” for “an extraordinary summer in presidential politics” has been a “full realization” that “Indian American women have arrived.”

“Never before in our nation’s history have two South Asian American women played such a prominent role in presidential politics — one, Harris, as the Democrat’s pick for the commander in chief, and the other, Usha Vance, as the wife of Trump’s Republican running mate and a crucial partner in her husband’s rapid rise,” she writes in an opinion piece in the Philadelphia Inquirer.

“As a South Asian American of Indian descent and a daughter of immigrants, seeing women who share my background playing such pivotal roles in the presidential election is powerful,” writes Mammen, whose family hails from Kerala.

“I see first-generation Americans taking the opportunities their parents struggled to give them and advancing to the national stage in the span of a few decades through determination, excellence, and accomplishment,” she writes.

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“As daughters of immigrants, Kamala Harris and Usha Vance were handed the batons their families carried as they came to the United States and bravely stepped into the unknown,” notes Mammen.“And, in their own ways, both of those women took their batons, ran — and then flew. They embody the spirit of the American dream.”

“In actuality, South Asian Americans have been a part of this entire presidential campaign period as both Nikki Haley and Vivek Ramaswamy, earlier Republican candidates, are also first generation Americans of Indian descent” she notes.

“The three of them (Harris, Vance, and Ramaswamy) have South Indian origins, a nuance that is notable perhaps only to other Indians, as the more commonly known foods, clothes, traits, and celebrations in the US are often from North Indian culture” Mammen observes.

“Like mine, the stories of Kamala Harris, Usha Vance, Nikki Haley, and Vivek Ramaswamy are neither rags to riches nor completely self-made,” she notes. “Each comes from middle-class families in India, the largest democracy in the world; each are the product of highly educated parents, grandparents, and even great-grandparents, whose careers included new discoveries and creating new knowledge as researchers and scholars, caring for and healing countless patients and families as physicians, and educating and empowering generations of children and young adults as teachers and educators, among others.”

“Their trajectories began from the privilege brought by education, knowledge, awareness, and belief in unending possibilities — that which beckons with the notion that nothing is impossible if you work for it, but nothing is entitled.”

“A look across many major industries shows people of South Asian descent in key leadership positions in the US and around the world,” observes Mammen, whose own work focuses on underserved and marginalized populations and improving health care equity.

“Whether business, engineering, journalism and media, computer science, law, medicine, education, entrepreneurship, literature, film, and a variety of STEM fields, people of South Asian descent have made their indelible mark, their presence known and their voices heard. A visible cohort has been promoted through broad recognition of their expertise and leadership acumen, setting the precedent to normalize South Asians in those echelons — although women still lag.”

Choosing to “look and explore beyond,” Mammen “saw representation reflected in the problem solvers of our time — the ones who dare step into the arena, ask probing questions, poke the status quo, willing to speak truth to power, and work for benefit beyond their own.”

READ: Usha Vance says media has created a “caricature” of her husband (August 5, 2024)

“More and more, when I look up, I see others of South Asian descent — particularly Indian American women — who advocate for themselves and others, who lean in with curiosity to listen and learn, who use their knowledge and expertise to influence, build partnerships, develop collaborations and bring others along, and who have the courage to always push for better, in themselves and the systems around them,” she writes.

“Kamala Harris, Usha Vance, and Nikki Haley have made it possible for me, and generations of South Asian American women and girls, including my incredible nieces, coming behind me, to realize and boldly declare: I look like a leader,” concludes Mammen.