There is a segment in the popular documentary, ‘Makers: Women Who Make America', which discusses the image and influence of Hillary Clinton. A product of the second wave feminist movement and a pivotal figure within the third wave feminist movement, there is no doubt Hillary Clinton was and still is unlike any other woman in America.

Her defeat in the 2016 presidential election sent shock waves throughout the country. Protests have erupted all over the country. Many Americans find themselves befuddled by the result of the election of President Donald Trump. Her campaign will be remembered for more than being the first woman to run come as far as she did to become the President of the United States.

Two words come to mind when discussing this recent election- Accommodation and Ambivalence.

Feminist writer Pam Johnston in her 2016 Huffington Post article "An Open Letter to the Good Guys" writes, “Women are taught to be accommodating… We’re told to smile. Blow kisses. Look pretty. There’s a specific set of words used for speaking about women who fail to do these things. We’re taught to fear those words above all others…” Johnston argues that women are taught to compromise their ambition and image in order to align with the white patriarchal image of society. A compromise their male counterparts have never had to make.

No other woman has embodied that compromise more than Hillary Clinton.

Her calculated efforts, such as her attire and persona, as a presidential candidate introduced many Americans to feminism for the first time. Just as Barack Obama’s presidency exposed the embedded racism in the United States, Clinton’s run exposed the country’s deep embedded patriarchal uneasiness towards gender equality. The idea of the highest place in the United States government belonging to a woman would threatened to shatter more than just the age-old glass ceiling. The idea of accommodation and ambivalence would begin to shatter as well, leaving many Americans apprehensive as to how that would change the United States culture.

Within this new generation of feminism, a fourth wave of feminism, Clinton’s defeat reveals the unfinished work many feminists still have to do. The ambivalence still remains. The mansplaining has evolved right along, taking shape in “locker room talk” and “nasty women”. But as Hillary Clinton said in her concession speech, her impact she had on women, young and old, shows how resilient and resourceful they are. All of this, as a result of the ambivalence and accommodation.

Despite her defeat, her campaign, in fact, just may have begun to chip away at this patriarchal glass ceiling. One of the most polarizing and perpetuated figures for two waves of feminism, she finds a home in the fourth wave of feminism. She has felt what every woman who has to feel when interacting on any playing field with a man. But because of her infamous public persona, it can no longer be an invisible battle.

Because of Hillary Diane Rodham Clinton, feminism has reached a new arena in American culture.