The year is 1917, and the first woman has just been elected to congress. According to The US House of Representatives, Montana native Jeannette Rankin has been campaigning as a progressive and a women’s suffragette for the past year. Little does she know that not even 100 years later, there will be another woman following in her footsteps, paving the way for women in the United States and around the world.
That woman is Hillary Rodham Clinton.
For some time, she was widely known as the First Lady to 42nd U.S. President Bill Clinton. During that time, she was the betrayed wife during the ever-famous Monica Lewinsky cheating scandal. Flash-forward to the year 2000, and she is elected U.S. Senator of New York, becoming the first woman to be elected in the state. She eventually moved up to become Secretary of State from 2009-2013, and now we see her all over the news campaigning to be the Democratic Presidential candidate for the 2016 election.
A woman in office!
With all of her previous accomplishments aside, having a woman in office could help the most recent feminist wave tremendously. Women, and even young girls, could start considering careers in politics and business with a role model like her! When elementary school teachers tell their class, “any single one of you could be president one day”, it would truly mean everyone, not just all of the little boys, who will have no shortage of political role models.
Having a woman in office could allow for so many more “firsts” for women to happen- after all, Jeannette Rankin’s historical election into congress wasn’t even 100 years ago! We still have a ways to go, and having a woman in office, especially one as inspirational as Hillary Clinton, would send the progress into overdrive.
More female CEO’s, more female Supreme Court Justices; little girls researching positions in office, and seeing someone she can relate to- a picture of someone who fought and made her voice heard in a nation who elected males as president for its entire existence as a self-governed nation.
Hillary has paved a path for women so that little girls grow up seeing their aspirations being validated with success, and with women being represented in one of the most honorable positions possible: the President of the United States.