Hillary Clinton made history when she became but many women going about their ordinary lives — while on break from their office jobs or finishing a run in the park — expressed a complex range of emotions.
Some said they had not been paying attention to politics. Others said it wasn’t a historic moment because candidates — male or female — should be chosen for their qualities, not their gender.
And then there’s and a member of the National Women’s Hall of Fame, who had no mixed emotions at all.
“It was a fabulous moment, and it’s very exciting to me,” said Schroeder from her home in Florida. “It feels very historic. I was just in a meeting at the League of Women Voters, and everyone was excited, talking about how long it’s been since women first got the right to vote. In 1848, Seneca Falls was the first place on the whole planet where women came together and asked for the right to vote, and they didn’t get it until 1920.”
Women have run for president before, including
Schroeder herself ran, briefly, in 1987, withdrawing in an emotional press conference.
“I suddenly figured out that while I was ready, it was not something the country was ready for,” she said. “The reality hit.”
No woman ever reached the milestone that Clinton did this week.
But for women such as Tyawne Williams , who was taking a lunch-hour break near the 16th Street Mall, it’s a hollow victory.
“It doesn’t feel exciting or historic,” said Williams, who supports Bernie Sanders. “It just feels scary to me. I just don’t like what she stands for, and I don’t think she’s for the people.”
Phyllis Gebre-Michael, sitting in the shade at Washington Park, wasn’t excited either.
“It’s historic, and it’s a great thing for women in the United States and for our children to say a woman was nominated,” she said.
But overall she believes the presidential campaign this year is “depressing,” leaving her without a candidate to support, and it’s hard to muster enthusiasm about the Tuesday night milestone.
Celeste Montoya, an associate professor of women and gender studies at the University of Colorado, studies how women and other marginalized groups organize inside and outside political institutions. She said that “a lot of things can play into” the mixed reactions to Clinton’s achievement, from a person’s political preferences to the last presidential election.
“There was a lot of excitement around Barack Obama, and at this point, it seems anti-climactic. That was a huge first, and then … he turned out not to be the savior everyone expected,” she said.
Also, there was “a lot of political incentive to de-historize” the gender aspect of Clinton’s campaign by conservative and progressive opponents, Montoya said.
“Some said that gender was not the most important issue, it was about class. She may be a woman, but she’s also part of the donor class.”
Schroeder speculated that a woman’s age could play a role.
“We did such a good job with Title IX with taking all the discrimination out education, that a lot of young women say to me, ‘You sound just like my grandmother. That was yesterday.’ ” she said. “But they find out down the line, and say, ‘What’s this?’ ”
Montoya believes this reason may be why Clinton is more popular with older women and minority women.
“They’ve had these experiences of being treated a certain way in the workforce, and when they see Clinton treated that way by the media or other candidates, it’s familiar,” she said.
“There’s a double standard. … When (women) start working up the ranks and getting in positions of authority, people respond differently. There is always criticism, you’re being too feminine or too masculine, too strong or not strong enough.”
When it comes to women in American politics, 104 women each held one of 535 seats in the U.S. Congress in 2015. Internationally, women have served as president or prime minister of a long list of countries, from Germany and Liberia to Latvia and India.
“We’re way behind the curve,” Schroeder said.
Whether or not Clinton will break the glass ceiling at the White House, it’s important to realize the specific importance of this moment, Montoya said.
“It’s a symbolic victory, and that’s important for democracy,” she said.
“When there’s no one who looks like you in positions of power, that’s kind of a problem. … We find young girls at a very young age have the same dreams of becoming president as boys do, but that drops off in middle school and high school. You can’t be what you can’t see.”
Wednesday at Washington Park, Alison Adnan stopped after a run to reflect on the moment.
“Regardless of anyone’s political view,” she said, “it’s a pretty great moment in our history. Just watching her (succeed) in her battle to get where she is makes me proud to be a woman.”
