Tag: History

On Election Day, the Hillary Clinton White Suit Effect

Posted on by Kelly Dittmar

Vanessa Friedman, New York Times – November 7, 2016

One of the more unexpected turns in a very twisted (in all senses of the word) electoral season has been the sudden emergence of a fashion statement that should, if all goes according to plan, reach its apogee on Tuesday, Election Day. A grass-roots movement on social media has been urging women to #WearWhiteToVote in solidarity with the American suffragists, who adopted the color as one of their signatures and fought for what has now come (at least partly) to fruition: the first woman as a major party’s candidate for president.

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We Have a Chance to Make History by Electing America’s First Woman President. Why Aren’t We Celebrating?

Posted on by Kelly Dittmar

Meghan Daum, LA Times – November 6, 2016

It ought to feel like a bigger deal, casting a ballot in the first presidential election in American history with a woman at the top of the ticket. Not that it isn’t a big deal; it’s huge. It’s just that even for many of Hillary Clinton’s supporters, heading to the polls on Tuesday may feel less like a celebration than a hopeful if not entirely impassioned call to duty.  History may be made, but it’s not the way they dreamed it would be.

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For American Women, Clinton Could End a Very Long Wait

Posted on by Kelly Dittmar

AFP, Daily Mail – November 6, 2016

Schultz was born in June 1918, two years before American women gained the vote with the ratification of the 19th Amendment. “To see such an accomplishment in my lifetime is momentous,” said the retired teacher, who lives in the Washington suburb of Rockville, Maryland. Having cast an early vote — as several states permit — she hopes to see the inauguration in January of the first woman president, following the succession of 44 men that began with George Washington in 1789.

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‘We can Do Anything:’ Older Women on the Prospect of a Female President

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Mark Mueller, NJ.com – November 6, 2016

In the most vitriolic presidential campaign in generations, it is a theme that has all but been lost. For the first time in the nation’s 240-year-history, a woman is at the top of a ticket, competing for the highest office in the land. The prospect of a female president is perhaps not such a remarkable leap to a younger generation of women, who grew up in an era of female governors, senators and chief executives.

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Trump’s ‘Locker Room’ Talk Eclipses Clinton’s Historic Moment

Posted on by Kelly Dittmar

Maddie Hanna, Philadelphia Inquirer – November 6, 2016

As she claimed enough votes in June to clinch the Democratic presidential nomination, Hillary Clinton credited “generations of women and men who struggled and sacrificed and made this moment possible.” Now some Clinton supporters fear that the potential historic milestone for women Tuesday could be diminished by the gender controversies surrounding her rival.

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Next Congress Likely to Have Record Number of Women, but Gains Still Slow

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Erin Kelly, USA Today – November 4, 2016

The number of women in Congress is likely to reach record highs after the Nov. 8 election, boosting female lawmakers to more than 20% of the House and Senate for the first time while also reflecting the continued difficulty of achieving equal representation.

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The Best Argument for a Hillary Clinton Presidency? 238 Years of American History

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Deborah L. Rhode, Quartz – November 4, 2016

The 2016 presidential campaign is historic in many respects, but none is more important than the role gender has played. For the first time, a woman is at the top of a major party’s ticket, and for the first time, millions of Americans are talking about the unequal playing field that she confronts.

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Clinton Supporters are Planning to Vote for the First Woman President Wearing Suffragette White

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Mark Bain, Quartz – November 3, 2016

For millions of American women, the chance to cast a ballot for Hillary Clinton is understandably emotional. In the 96 years since women won their right to vote in the US, never have they had a greater chance of electing a woman to the highest office in the country. To commemorate the moment and honor the work of those who fought for their right to a voice, many Clinton supporters are planning to wear the suffragettes’ symbolic white when they head to the polls on Nov. 8.

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What Bill Clinton Should Do as First Gentleman

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Margaret Talbot, The New Yorker – November 2, 2016

One of the unresolved worries about a Hillary Clinton Presidency is her husband, Bill. Some of the discomfort has to do with his past: his unfortunate history with women; the perception that donors to the Bill, Hillary & Chelsea Clinton Foundation might have expected special access to Hillary Clinton; the discomfiting spectacle of the former President zipping around the world in various private jets, collecting exorbitant speaking fees.

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The Congresswoman Who Paved the Way for Hillary Clinton

Posted on by Kelly Dittmar

Josh Zeitz, Politico –

100 years and a day before Hillary Clinton will cast her vote in a bid to become the first female president of the United States, Jeannette Rankin, a 36-year-old rancher’s daughter from Missoula, Montana, who had devoted her early career to women’s suffrage and progressive reform causes, voted in her state’s federal and local elections.

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