Hillary Clinton has spoken at the Democratic National Convention about her hope that Kamala Harris can finally break the “highest, hardest glass ceiling” in America by becoming the first female president.
Mrs. Clinton said she had broken a glass ceiling of her own by becoming the first woman to win a major party nomination for president.
“When a barrier falls for one of us, it clears the way for all of us,” she said, echoing her convention speech from eight years before.
But while her bid for the presidency in 2016 was historic, it ultimately ended in defeat when she lost the election to Donald Trump.
Now, as the Democratic Party takes its next shot at putting the first woman in the White House, she told a crowd of thousands in Chicago the time had come to pass the torch.
“Together, we’ve put a lot of cracks in the highest, hardest glass ceiling,” Mrs Clinton said. “On the other side of that glass ceiling is Kamala Harris raising her hand and taking the oath of office as our 47th President of the United States.”
Times have changed since Mrs Clinton’s presidential bid, according to several female delegates and politicians attending the 2024 DNC in Chicago.
Back then, she made her gender a central part of the campaign – a move Ms Harris has seemingly chosen to avoid. Whether the political backdrop has transformed enough for the vice president to reach the nation’s highest office remains an open question.
Mrs Clinton “shattered a lot of glass for many people”, Minyon Moore, the chair of the Democratic National Convention Committee, told reporters on Monday morning.
But, she added: “It’s not easy. We’re trying to shift the mindset of people.”
Women politicians and delegates who spoke to the BBC said they faced a number of barriers in politics, both in running for office and while serving their communities.
When Mallory McMorrow, a state senator from Michigan, ran for office in 2018, she remembers one woman in her district asked if she was planning on having children.
“She told me to my face, this is not a job for a mom,” Ms McMorrow said. She went on to become the second senator in Michigan history to give birth while in office.
Judy Mount, the first African-American female chair of the Florida Democrats, said it took years for women to be able to serve as chairs of their state political parties.
“People just do not want to see a woman in charge of anything,” she said. “They do not.”
Source: BBC
