The New York Daily News
February 25, 2007
BY HEIDI EVANS DAILY NEWS STAFF WRITER Sunday, February 25th, 2007
Alexandra Desaulniers can't be commander in chief before 2024, when she turns 35. But she's sure glad a woman may be warming up her seat in the Oval Office come 2008.
The 18-year-old high school senior declared her candidacy to her mom and dad when she was just 9, after they took her on a White House tour. She was disappointed that all of the portraits were of men.
Now, with Hillary Clinton a front-runner for the Democratic nomination, girls like Alexandra are elated by the possibility that their dream house can be the White House.
Clinton's announcement she's in it to win has struck a chord with a young generation of girls who see they can rule not just in pop culture, but in politics, too.
"Seeing Nancy Pelosi as speaker of the House and Hillary Clinton running for the presidency is really powerful for girls," said Marie Wilson, who created the nonpartisan White House Project in 1998 to help women and teens see themselves as future officeholders.
"You can't be what you can't see," said Wilson, co-founder of Take Our Daughters to Work Day. "We have been trying to help girls see that they can be the President through Girl Scouts, Barbie [dolls] for President, the TV show 'Commander in Chief,' with Geena Davis, documentaries. What is so wonderful now is that we have the real thing."
Germany, Chile, Liberia and Jamaica recently elected their first female heads of state, and France is about to do the same. U.S. polls show America is more willing to accept female leadership than at any point in its history - and New York girls say it's about time.
"If you don't see young women dancing in the streets over this, you know people on the inside are saying, 'Yes! Yes! Yes!'" said Ryan-Ashleigh Reid, 19, of the Bronx and now a freshman at SUNY Purchase. "I know it sounds cheesy, but it's always a guy and, now, finally, we have a woman in charge."
Vannessa Velez, a seventh-grader at Booker T. Washington Middle School on the upper West Side, applauded Clinton for putting herself in the center ring.
"I think it's pretty brave," said Vannessa. "She has to know people are going to say a lot of things about her, bad things or insulting things."
Not everyone is Hillary-happy, but even girls who don't like her love the fact that a woman is making history.
"I'm not a big fan of Hillary Clinton," said Mor Rosenberg, a 17-year-old junior at Stuyvesant High School. "She is too political. But I think the race should be more about the candidates' qualifications. I don't think gender should have much to do with it."
Asked whether Clinton would be judged more on her appearance, say, than her male contenders, Mor said, "Not unless she started wearing miniskirts and tube tops. And I doubt she's going to do that."
Teen girls, many of whom will cast their first vote for President in 2008, also had advice for Hillary.
One suggested she be a guest judge on "American Idol," with its 32 million viewers. Another, Shalay Lindsey, 17, of Crown Heights, said she would tell her, "Don't be intimidated by the men. Everything they can do, we can do better."
Or, as then-9-year-old Desaulniers ended a 1997 letter to Wilson following her visit to the White House: "P.S. My first name, Alexandra, means 'leader of men.' I think that's neat!!"
