"Politics is so much about serendipity that we've got to have a bigger pool of women, so that when people drop out of the process, you've got others to turn to"
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Politics, Eleanor Clift reminds us, isn’t a meritocracy so much as a revolving door with bad timing. Her key move is stripping the romance from how leaders “rise”: it’s not always vision and résumé, it’s vacancies, scandals, health crises, party feuds, and sudden opportunities that appear when someone else implodes. Calling it “serendipity” sounds almost gentle, but the subtext is ruthless: if power is frequently allocated by chance, then exclusion isn’t just unfair - it’s strategically stupid.
The argument for a “bigger pool of women” isn’t framed as symbolic progress or moral dessert. It’s operational. Clift is talking about succession planning in a system that pretends not to need it. When “people drop out of the process,” the real question becomes: who is already vetted, connected, funded, and considered “plausible” on short notice? If the pipeline is thin, parties default to the familiar - usually men with existing donor networks and institutional trust. If the pipeline is deep, replacement stops being a scramble and starts being a handoff.
Context matters: this is the logic born from watching campaigns derail and administrations reshuffle, where the so-called “bench” decides who gets to be inevitable. Clift’s intent is to reframe representation as resilience. Her line quietly indicts the gatekeepers who act shocked when no women are “ready,” as if readiness isn’t something institutions manufacture through opportunity, not destiny.
The argument for a “bigger pool of women” isn’t framed as symbolic progress or moral dessert. It’s operational. Clift is talking about succession planning in a system that pretends not to need it. When “people drop out of the process,” the real question becomes: who is already vetted, connected, funded, and considered “plausible” on short notice? If the pipeline is thin, parties default to the familiar - usually men with existing donor networks and institutional trust. If the pipeline is deep, replacement stops being a scramble and starts being a handoff.
Context matters: this is the logic born from watching campaigns derail and administrations reshuffle, where the so-called “bench” decides who gets to be inevitable. Clift’s intent is to reframe representation as resilience. Her line quietly indicts the gatekeepers who act shocked when no women are “ready,” as if readiness isn’t something institutions manufacture through opportunity, not destiny.
Quote Details
| Topic | Equality |
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