Hillary Clinton was the first female presidential nominee of a major political party in the United States.Hillary Clinton was the first female presidential nominee of a major political party in the United States.
Her defeat does not change the incredible magnitude of that accomplishment.
Neither does the success of Hammonton native Kellyanne Conway, the first woman in U.S. history to run a Republican general election presidential campaign.
‘Breaking Glass,’ regardless of results, is about jumping into the arena in the first place and saying, “I belong here just as much as he does.”
Here are the names of a few other women in the political arena who have done so this year, according to Self.com:
- Catherine Cortez Masto: the first Latina senator;
- Tammy Duckworth: the first female senator to have seen combat and the first Thai-American woman in Congress;
- Kamala Harris: the first Indian-American senator and the first woman and minority to have held the position of attorney general in California;
- Pramila Jayapal: the first Indian-American woman and the first person of South Asian descent to be elected to the House of Representatives;
- Stephanie Murphy: the first Vietnamese-American woman to get elected to Congress;
- Ilhan Omar: the first Somali-American Muslim female legislator in Minnesota;
- Kate Brown: the first openly LGBT elected governor in Oregon and in the U.S.
According to the Center for American Women and Politics at Rutgers University in New Brunswick, 104 women — 78 Democrats, 26 Republicans — will serve in the 115th Congress. And only one woman has won a gubernatorial race so far this year: incumbent Kate Brown (D-OR).
That means less than 20 percent of a legislature that governs a population that is 51 percent female will be women.
Let us all work collectively to change that. Here are some good places to start:
- Emerge New Jersey is the premier training program for Democratic women in 15 states.
- The New Jersey Federation of Republican Women encourages women to participate in the activities and goals of the Republican Party in both the state and nationwide.
- The Women’s Political Caucus of New Jersey is dedicated to increasing women’s participation in the political process, increasing the number of women in elected and appointed office, protecting reproductive freedom, and creating a women’s political power base to achieve equality for all women.
- The League of Women Voters of New Jersey advocates for certain legislation after careful study and consensus of their members.
