By Jodi Enda | Eight years ago, Hillary Clinton made history as the first woman to be nominated for president by a major party. A proud feminist, she embraced the trailblazing nature of her campaign, portraying it as a quest to break the “highest, hardest glass ceiling.” But winning the popular vote still didn’t enable her to shatter the glass. A greater equality, the dream of generations of women, remained just that—a dream. Another woman would have to make it come true.
This week, in what might have been the waning days of her second term, Clinton declared in a full-throated speech at the Democratic National Convention, that “the future is here.” It is Kamala Harris, she said, who can smash that centuries-old ceiling once and for all.
Vice President Harris, a strong feminist in her own right, is running less as a female candidate than as a nominee who just happens to be a woman—and a woman of color, at that. Democrats, overwhelmingly jubilant at their Chicago nominating convention, told me that they think it’s a winning strategy. Times have changed since 2016, they said.
Have they?
It is true that Harris isn’t burdened by the baggage that Clinton carried, female-centric stereotypes that stuck to her like gum to a shoe, dating from her years as first lady, senator and secretary of state. Harris is something of a blank slate who is reintroducing herself to the American people in a way that, Democrats hope, they will find both positive and palatable.
Yes, palatable. Even in 2024, women candidates—like all women in positions of power—must come across as not only competent, right and smart, but as palatable. Another word for that is “likable.” During Clinton’s campaign in 2016, many voters told pollsters and journalists (including this one) that they’d vote for a woman, “just not that woman.” It’s a common refrain that is being put to the test yet again.
Still, the obstacle of “running while female” might be ameliorated by some big things that have happened since Clinton sought the White House, convention delegates, pollsters and women’s advocates told me.
(Click here to read more)
