Last night, according to the Associated Press and other news organizations, Hillary Clinton became the first woman nominated as the presidential candidate of a major party. If the past year is any guide, her nomination will be met not with a bang, but a whimper.
Unlike eight years ago, when a sense of momentousness clung to every moment of Barack Obama’s march to the nomination, and then to the presidency, the historic nature of Clinton’s candidacy has been almost entirely muted. And however you feel about the general election that is about to begin, for one night at least, we should celebrate her accomplishment.
It’s tempting to argue that Hillary Clinton has been on the national scene far too long for her campaign to capture a sense of novelty. But her longevity only adds to the significance of her nomination. It would be one thing for a woman to arrive on the scene now, when everyone from Beyoncé to Carly Fiorina to Justin Trudeau declare themselves to be feminists. But when Clinton became a household name in the early 1990s, American politics and culture were far more hostile to women seeking political influence.
Take the Senate. At the start of the 1990s, only two women served in the upper house: Nancy Kassebaum and Barbara Mikulski. In 1993, long before Hillary Clinton declared herself a “pantsuit aficionado” on Twitter, Kassebaum and Mikulski staged the Pantsuit Rebellion. Senate tradition dictated women could only wear skirts. One day, the two women senators wore pants and told the women on their staffs to do likewise. They did, and the antiquated rule dropped away (but not before the Senate parliamentarian checked the rules to see if it was OK).
The women that joined Kassebaum and Mikulksi in the 1990s faced barriers of their own. When Carol Moseley Braun, who was elected to the Senate in 1992, went to get her photo ID, the clerk handed her a card that read “Spouse.” She handed it back, telling the staffer, “Try again.”
As first lady, Clinton had to overcome a different set of challenges. Her job was, in fact, “spouse.” But from the start, she worked to retain her identity as both a professional and a partner. On the campaign trail, Bill Clinton lauded her career as a lawyer, pitching their partnership as a co-presidency, a “two-for-one” deal. Only it was Hillary, not Bill, who was derided for her fashion choices, who had to swap cookie recipes with Barbara Bush, who was mocked for her “blond ambition.”
Throughout the 1990s, Hillary Clinton struggled to balance the confining expectations of political spouse with her own professional goals. There were plenty of people who understood that she was a transitional, if not a transformational, figure in American politics, someone paving the way for women. Roger Ailes, who in 1992 was a political consultant and four years away from founding Fox News, said of Clinton: “She’ll break ground but she won’t succeed. Eight or 10 years down the road, someone else will reap the benefits.”
Against all odds, Clinton closed out the decade as both first lady and Senator-elect. And against even bigger odds, 16 years later she has clinched the Democratic presidential nomination, making her the first woman ever to do so in any major political party.
Whatever you think about Clinton, whether you want to see her win or lose or indicted, that’s an impressive personal feat. And more than that: It’s a genuinely groundbreaking, glass-shattering moment. The nomination of a woman has the potential not only to redefine the presidency but to broaden our understanding of citizenship. That can lead to tumult and backlash, as the nomination and election of the first black president did, but ultimately it will forge a more inclusive American identity. And that is something to celebrate.
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Celebrate Hillary Clinton Becoming the First Woman Nominated for President originally appeared on usnews.com
