Paula Cole: Women’s voices, women’s wisdom

Democratic vice presidential candidate Sen. Kamala Harris, D-Calif., participates in the vice presidential debate with Vice President Mike Pence Wednesday, Oct. 7, 2020, at Kingsbury Hall on the campus of the University of Utah in Salt Lake City. (AP Photo/Julio Cortez) by& Paula Cole & How many times have the young men in the room interrupted me, their senior by decades, their professor and scholar? The unbelievable cheek. And no surprise: over the young women of the classroom. How many times do young women not speak when I& know& that they know? I am speaking. Kamala Harris& enunciated these three perfect words, piercing me, shooting an arrow into the fleshy politeness, the WASP-customs I’ve accrued. I don’t have her language, and I& need& that language. Singing and writing gave me that language, but speaking? Hardly. Too often, I’ve lacked spine in the moment on a pulpit, a stage — I too was the quiet young woman in the classroom. Too often, I become the martyr or the victim, the feminine options I was taught by my Swedish mother to be considered ladylike. Women aren’t given the pulpit, the presidency, with open arms — we aren’t given the floor, the listening,...