Corpus-Based Analysis of the Feminine Style of Kamala Harris' Discourse: Women (Not Men) Are the Backbone of America's Democracy and Economy Hanan A. Amaireh English Department, Philadelphia University, Amman, Jordan Abstract—Few studies analyzed the political discourse of the American Vice President Kamala Harris, especially during the presidential elections and her position as the American Vice President. This paper investigates the political discourse of Harris in a corpus-based study of 40 speeches (82,268) words, from 13 October, 2020 to 10 May, 2022. It examines whether Harris' speeches draw on "the feminine style" of political speeches as envisaged by Campbell (1989), Dow and Tonn (1993), and Blankenship and Robson (1995). Qualitative and quantitative analysis will be used. The quantitative analysis will use the Antconc Software to investigate the frequency of certain lexical items related to females such as woman, women, female(s), girl(s), lady, ladies, mother(s), and mom(s), inter alia. Moreover, the frequency of the first-person and third-person pronouns I, we are investigated to examine whether Harris shares her life experience and inspect whether she uses inclusive language. The qualitative and quantitative analysis shows that the political discourse of the Vice President draws on the feminine style of political speeches, such as constructing a political stance based on genuine experience, dedication to addressing women's issues in the political arena, promoting inclusiveness and realizing that actual achievements are required for leadership positions and highlighting that in her political discourse, which is in line with the observations of Campbell (1989), Dow and Tonn (1993), and Blankenship and Robson (1995). Index Terms—corpus analysis, discourse analysis, Kamala Harris, the feminine style I. INTRODUCTION The discourse of females in the political arena is under-researched, especially in corpus-based studies. Few studies analyzed the political speeches of the American Vice President Kamala Harris during the presidential elections and in her position as a Vice President to Joe Biden as the first female to hold this position in the American history. So it is worth focusing on the language she uses and analyzing her political discourse, especially the political speeches. Since this paper analyzes the political discourse of the American Vice President Kamala Harris, it is essential to provide background information about the speaker, her family, education and the positions she holds. A. Background of Kamala Harris Kamala D. Harris is the United States of America's Vice President of Joe Biden. When she swore in as the United States' Vice President on January 20, 2021, she became the first female, first Black, and first South Asian to hold the position. The former California Senator assured a Wilmington, Delaware crowd during her November victory address, saying, "While I may be the first woman in this office, I will not be the last". She was elected Vice President following a career in public service that included positions such as San Francisco District Attorney, California Attorney General, and United States Senator. She was born in Oakland, California, to Indian and Jamaican parents. Shyamala Gopalan, Kamala and Maya Harris' mother, highly influences her daughters. Gopalan earned her doctorate the same year Kamala was born, specializing in breast cancer science. Kamala is inspired by her mother's words, "Kamala, you may be the first to do a lot of things, but don't be the last". Kamala graduated from the University of California with a law degree. Her activist parents instilled a profound sense of social justice in her. They accompanied her to peaceful demonstrations and exposed her to influential figures such as Supreme Court Justice Thurgood Marshall and civil rights campaigner Constance Baker Motley, whose activism encouraged her to become a prosecutor. Throughout her career, Kamala Harris has been guided by the words she said at her first court appearance. She started her career in 1990 concentrating on cases involving child sexual abuse. She then served as Chief of the City Attorney's Division on Children and Families. In 2003, Harris was elected District Attorney for San Francisco. In that capacity, she pioneered a program that allows first-time drug offenders to get a high school diploma and find work. The United States Department of Justice identified the program as a national example of law enforcement innovation. She was also elected Attorney General of California in 2010 and supervised the country's largest state justice department. She founded the state's first Bureau of Children's Justice and implemented various first-of-their-kind changes that increased the criminal ISSN 1799-2591 Theory and Practice in Language Studies, Vol. 12, No. 9, pp. 1762-1769, September 2022 DOI: https://doi.org/10.17507/tpls.1209.08 © 2022 ACADEMY PUBLICATION