Hamilton: an Argument for Women in Politics

By Kendall Kutzavitch  

The year was 2015. Candidates, Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump, were gearing up for the upcoming 2016 election. The first, and only, election in which a woman was seen as a serious contender for the American presidency. Meaning, in the 228 years since our country’s founding and 58 elections that have occurred, only in 2015 has a female politician been seriously considered for presidential office.

Also, in 2015, Lin Manuel Miranda unleashed the entertainment sensation known as Hamilton upon the streets of Broadway and by doing so, brought the reality of America’s founding into a modern-day context. And as Alexander’s life story and the history of America unfolded on a stage, so did the injustices hidden in the foundation of America’s government, regarding a lack of representation and women’s exclusion from politics.

While Hilary Clinton fought to be taken seriously in a masculine political realm, Lin’s characters, Eliza and Angelica Schuyler, were fighting on stage for their right to be “included in the sequel” way back in 1776. To account for such injustices, Lin Manuel Miranda disregarded the female stereotypes ongoing during America’s founding and chose to paint his women in a independent, politically active, and feministic light.

In doing so, Lin Manuel Miranda disregards oppression of the past and portrays his female characters, in Hamilton, as defying stereotypical gender roles to further argue the narrative: Women Should Be (and Should Have Been) Welcome in Politics.

 

Historical Commonplaces v. Female Characters

Throughout the time period of our country’s founding, women were seen as objects to acquire by men for the sole purpose of fulfilling the role of wife: cooking, cleaning, and providing children. Society, from the start of government, has restricted women from being seen as possible politicians. However, Lin Manuel Miranda directs characters Eliza and Angelica Schuyler to stand up to this stereotype and prove they have greater goals in life than to exist for man’s attention.

For example, when men speak about the three Schuyler sisters, they view the girls as traveling into the city “just to watch all the guys” and each man believes that “she’s looking for me.” In response, Angelica counters all their assumptions by obsessing over the emerging revolution and new age of politics happening within New York City. Despite men calling her “insane” for defying the typical societal boundaries of women, she continues to take more interest in the “new ideas in the air” than the abundance of men trying to get her attention. Consequently, the character prioritizes intellect and government involvement over the role of a wife.

By portraying Angelica in this light, Miranda goes against the commonplaces of this time period and chooses instead to empower female intellect. Angelica gushes about how lucky they are to be alive in a time of political change because she possesses a higher level of education than the men of the city elected from her. Thus, shocking characters by disproving societal norms. Furthermore, depicting Angelica as more concerned with the American Revolution than rich men in the city defys the outdated stereotype of women only existing for a man’s attention. As a result, Lin discredits preconceived notions on what women are capable of doing in comparison to men in the context of the modern world. And in altering his female characters to be empowered and politically active, he paints an idealized society, in which women are accepted players in politics, and encourages change in the current political system. Overall, the playwright is opening the audience’s mind to the idea of women in politics and requiring them to question their own assumptions and stereotypes about females and government.

 

Portraying Women’s Political Knowledge

Outside of women never being considered for politics because of their secondary citizen status, Lin shows their exclusion has been unjustifiable as women show not only an eagerness to get involved with politics, but amassing qualifications to be elected and lead. He does so by once again constructing an idealized American society and government, through Hamilton, where women interested in politics are presented to the public and their intelligence accentuated to other characters.

Throughout the musical, Angelica’s level of education is noted upon by others and often, her acumen surpasses that of male characters. When speaking, she makes various references stemming from political novels like “Common Sense” to opening lines from the Declaration of Independence to Ben Franklin’s discoveries to Greek mythology.  Furthermore, when Angelica does speak, men are often taken aback with surprise at her level of education. Most women in this point in history would not be educated, or at the very least involved in political discussion. However, Miranda chooses to include women not only as scholars but as purveying heavy interest in political life.

Throughout her allusions, the playwright depicts Angelica, and other women from this time period, as being well-read and have attained a wide array of knowledge. By purveying this character as a scholar, Miranda not only further debunks myths that women are not as capable as men but argues that women are just as qualified as men to partake in political referendum. Therefore, the absence of women from the beginning of government can only be attributed to sexism of the past.

Additionally, Angelica becomes a lovable character to the audience and is one of the smartest characters in the show, besides Hamilton. In fact, the two become pen pals because no one else can match their smarts for “turn of phrase.” Through this characterization, the playwright is able to further convince the audience of women’s qualification to be apart of politics and similarly, their love for Angelica inherently causes them to root for her and other female characters to be included in proceedings of government.

It is with this idealized society, a musical with both female and male politicians, that Lin Manuel Miranda is advocating and arguing for women to be included in government. At this point in the play, Miranda is calling upon the audience to not just recognize that women like Eliza and Angelica can be more than wives, but that women today are more capable than what society and outdated governing norms previously constricted them to be. Consequently, venturing from just planting the idea of including women in government in the audience’s head to actually advocating for such inclusion by establishing credibility and expertise for female politicians.

 

Recognizing Female Accomplishments in Politics

Conversely, when women are included and active in the political field, the media neglects their political involvement and fails to educate the world on the lives of female political figures, despite the multitude of paragraphs in American history books about male politicians. Knowing this, Lin takes his musical as an opportunity to open America’s eyes to the work of women behind the scenes of the founding of the United States.

While, yes, the musical focuses on the life of Alexander Hamilton, the overarching argument actually pertains to Eliza Hamilton and her lack of recognition for her accomplishments in government and politics.

In the musical, other characters emphasize the idea that “every other Founding Fathers’ story gets told.” In doing so, the playwright poses an inherent question of who tells the story of the significant female figures? Furthermore, Lin Manuel Miranda gives Eliza Hamilton full recognition for her political involvement by highlighting how she “interviews every soldier who fought by (Hamilton’s) side,” “makes sense of (his) thousands of pages of writing,” “raises funds in DC for the Washington monument,” “speaks out against slavery,” and “establishes the first private orphanage in New York City.” Yet, prior to the song, a majority of the audience most likely had no prior knowledge of Eliza’s political achievements. Similarly, after Hamilton cheated on Eliza, the audience felt an emotional, empathetic connection to her that would last until the end of the show. By both shocking the audience with a never-ending list of successful triumphs they had no awareness of and creating a bond between the character and the audience, Lin causes his crowd to to take pity on women and the injustices they have faced in being excluded from political recognition. Therefore, creating an emotional appeal for viewers to not exclude more women like Eliza from politics and to credit them for their accomplishments.

Additionally, in response to her list of feats, Eliza begins to question if she’s “done enough” and who will tell her story. Despite founding fathers almost guaranteeing that their histories will be told, Eliza questions her worthiness of having her story told and whether someone will tell the world of her own accomplishments because she is a woman.

Through this idea of Eliza as a background character in Alexander Hamilton’s story until the end where the audience discovers what she has accomplished throughout her life, Lin opens the audience’s mind to their own assumptions they had made about Eliza just being Alexander’s wife and not having her own story or political significance. After evoking empathy for Eliza, he causes them to ask themselves whether they would’ve told Eliza’s story.

Thus, by paralleling everything she’s done and her untold story to the repetitive story of the male founders of America, like Alexander Hamilton, the playwright is featuring the inequality of male and female politicians in the American political system.

To conclude the musical, the playwright gives Eliza’s impressive track record to establish a track record of things women have already done in government to argue that they would make a positive impact. He also adds to his argument personal stories, like Eliza Hamilton’s, to devise many emotional appeals to prove to the audience that female politicians’ stories are worth being told, moving from arguing women’s capability to proving their worthiness to be involved in government.

 

Since the beginnings of America’s founding,  women in politics have been ostracized from the history books. And Hamilton, the musical, effectively exposes this reality of women’s oppression in government by tying historical injustice of beloved characters to these same, present day political struggles, depicting the true duration of a feminist’s fight.

We, as a society, have failed to write their stories however, what has been staple for the past 200 years does not have to remain for 200 more. It is now in the hands of you, as a member of a new generation of voters, to vote for the next set of Congressmen and women that create an American government that is representative of its citizens.

 

History now has its eyes on you.