As the dust settles from the Trump presidency, there’s much about the so-called “Resistance” to his term that will fade over time: the memes, the hashtags, even the pink-knit pussy hats.
The resistance that will endure, however, is work that has been spearheaded by women on the inspiring side of 50—which is to say, women over the age of 50. In a new weekly segment on “Morning Joe”, Forbes and NBC News’ Know Your Value will highlight three women over the age of 50 who’ve made their mark on current events, politics and business.
This week’s spotlight goes to women who have boldly and publicly stood up to President Trump. They are:
Nancy Pelosi, 80.
The California congresswoman’s second tenure as Speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives (her first term went from 2007 to 2011) has been defined by her challenges to the 45th president. She has literally torn his State of the Union speech to pieces and, more consequentially, engineered not just one but two impeachment proceedings against him. The first, for abuse of power and obstruction of justice, resulted in the House voting in favor of impeachment in December of 2019. She drew the second articles of impeachment against Trump for an “incitement of insurrection,” earlier this month, and here again the House voted to impeach—this time on the most bipartisan basis in U.S. history.
Pelosi rejects the idea that pursuing impeachment could and will further divide the American people. “Just because he is gone, thank God, we don’t say to a president, ‘Do whatever you want in the last months of your administration… because people want to make nice nice,’” she said on Thursday. “I think that would be harmful for unity.”
RELATED: Mika Brzezinski to highlight inspiring women over 50 every week on “Morning Joe”
Liz Cheney, 54.
Cheney is the daughter of former vice president Dick Cheney and the third-highest ranking Republican in the 117th Congress. And so when Cheney said earlier this month that she would vote to impeach Trump for his role in promulgating the January 6 insurrection at the Capitol, it was the most prominent rebuke of the president from an elected Republican.
“The President could have immediately and forcefully intervened to stop the violence. He did not,” Cheney wrote in a statement ahead of her impeachment vote. “There has never been a greater betrayal by a President of the United States of his office and his oath to the Constitution.” For these words, and her vote, Cheney already has a primary challenger in the 2022 midterm elections.
Teresa Shook, 70.
Compared to the other members of this trio, Shook is the unsung hero. She’s not a politician with a massive following but a Hawaii-based retired lawyer and grandmother with a Facebook account. In 2016, aghast that voters in enough states had decided to cast their ballot for a man who’d bragged of grabbing women by the “p—-y,” Shook suggested in a post to a private Facebook group that people march for women’s rights. She created a private event page for the protest, shared it with a few friends, and went to bed.
This article first appeared on Forbes.com.
