Wednesday, October 15, 2025

Kamala Harris advises young women to not underestimate the pain of breaking barriers: ‘You might get cut and you might bleed’

Under the vaulted stone ceiling of the National Cathedral Tuesday night, Kamala Harris talked about another type of ceiling: the glass one she failed to break.

The former vice president and 2024 presidential candidate sat down with Fortune editor in chief Alyson Shontell on Day 2 of the Fortune Most Powerful Women Summit to discuss her new book, the future of the Democratic party, and her 107-day race for president that ended in defeat.

She said she wrote her new book, 107 Days, so her voice was present in accounts of the historic 2024 election, and she cited dis- and misinformation as a factor in her loss and the on-going distrust among Americans. In talking about her defeat, she also laid out, in stark terms, the tricky situation she stepped into as the Democratic nominee: “A president is running for re-election… Three and a half months before the election, he decides not to run. The sitting vice president decides to take up the mantle against the former president of the United States, who had been running for 10 years, with 107 days to go.”

That circumstance seems like a quintessential ‘glass cliff,’ the phenomenon in which women are tapped for near-impossible jobs, but Harris dismissed that idea on-stage based on what it might imply about her future: A glass cliff “suggests finality, and I’m not into that.”

The former California attorney general and U.S. senator, who recently opted to not enter the California gubernatorial race, didn’t specify what she’ll do next.

Harris also shared the advice she gives to the young women she mentors who are taking aim at the ceiling above them—stone, glass or otherwise: “Sometimes with a bit of frustration, I’ve said to them, ‘Do you think that breaking barriers means you start out on one side of the barrier and just end up on the other side of the barrier?’ No, there’s breaking involved. And when you break things, you might get cut and you might bleed, and it is worth it every single time.”

Claire Zillman
claire.zillman@fortune.com

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