With Barack Obama arguably one of the most progressive and liberal presidents the USA has ever seen, you’d be forgiven for thinking that being a woman on his team would have been an equality-driven doddle.
In reality, it was still difficult for women to become fully integrated all presidential workings and make themselves heard – men made up two thirds of his top aides afterall.
‘If you didn’t come in from the campaign, it was a tough circle to break into,’ Anita Dunn, the White House communications director until 2009, told the Washing Post. ‘Given the makeup of the campaign, there were just more men than women.’
Speaking to The Cut, National Security Advisor Susan Rise said they had to consciously make an effort ensure they were included in all matters, ‘It’s not pleasant to have to appeal to a man to say, “Include me in that meeting.”’
But rather than settling for this treatment, the women banded together to become more powerful using the technique of ‘amplification’.
This means that whenever a woman made a key point, other women would repeat it, crediting the woman who had first said it, and emphasising the point so that men were forced to notice it. It also meant that men wouldn’t be able to claim the idea as their own.
Speaking anonymously, one former aide of Obama’s told _the Washington Pos_t, ‘We just started doing it, and made a purpose of doing it. It was an everyday thing.’
This is known as 'the Shine Theory', which writer Ann Friedman first coined back in 2013. Writing on The Cut, she explained that rather than feeling threatened by women who you perceived as more together, successful or 'better' than you and rejecting them through jealousy: embrace them.
‘Here’s my solution,' she writes. 'When you meet a woman who is intimidatingly witty, stylish, beautiful, and professionally accomplished, befriend her. Surrounding yourself with the best people doesn’t make you look worse by comparison. It makes you better.’
‘I want the strongest, happiest, smartest women in my corner, pushing me to negotiate for more money, telling me to drop men who make me feel bad about myself, and responding to my outfit selfies from a place of love and stylishness, not competition and body-snarking,’ she goes on.
Here, here. Because, if you hadn't quite realised it yet, we’re stronger together. Girl power and all that.
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This article originally appeared on The Debrief.