Hillary Clinton (from here on out, HRC, because I like initials) is known for her pantsuits. Her brightly-colored outfits have been her trademark since her husband was in office -- whether you love them or you hate them, you'll always recognize her in bright blue, red, or pink when she's in the spotlight.

HRC's pant suits are something I've never fully understood until now. I'm not a big "fashionista," but I never thought her pantsuits were quite nice enough for a woman that clearly has enough money to be dressing in more flattering outfits. Why couldn't she ever get a nice dress?

While HRC's choice to wear pant suits might be purely because they're more comfortable or she doesn't like dresses, I believe there's a far more serious reason, and I realized it because of a book I'm currently reading.

This summer, I started reading Gail Collins' book When Everything Changed: The Amazing Journey of American Women from 1960 to the Present (which sounds like a textbook but is actually a wonderful read for any budding feminist). Ms. Collins opens her book with the story of Lois Rabinowitz, a 28-year-old secretary for an oil company executive. In the summer of 1960, Mrs. Rabinowitz showed up to traffic court to pay her boss's speeding ticket. Upon her approaching the bench, Magistrate Edward D. Caiazzo exploded. "Do you appreciate you're in a courtroom in slacks?" Mrs. Rabinowitz had shown up to court in pressed slacks and a blouse, which was deemed unacceptable by the magistrate, who then ordered for her to go home and put on something more "appropriate." Mrs. Rabinowitz opted to have her husband pay the ticket instead, and her husband received a warning to "start now and clamp down a little or it'll be too late." This became big news in New York City, and Magistrate Caiazzo told reporters, "I get excited about this because I hold womanhood on a high plane and it hurts my sensibilities to see women tearing themselves down from this pedestal." Ms. Collins ends the passage so eloquently:

"It was a convoluted expression of the classic view of sexual differences: women did not wear the pants in the family -- or anywhere else, for that matter. In turn, they were allowed to stand on a pedestal."

This passage really resonated me. Something that has always puzzled me is why my female professors wear mostly slacks. I never saw some of them in skirts, and it always bothered me. But this passage totally changed my mind about not only that, but about femininity in general.

Most of my professors grew up in the 1960s and 1970s, during some of the most turbulent times of modern feminism -- the decades of "bra-burnings" (which never actually happened) and newly-minted working women and not having bathrooms in engineering and science academic buildings in college. These were also the times when women were expected to be feminine. Women were held to incredibly high standards in terms of how they looked and dressed (much higher than now) and were expected to be dressed to the nines at all times. The fact that my female professors (and HRC herself) can wear pants at all and be considered serious women of their professions shows me how far women have come. I wear dresses because I like to, but they wore them because they had to.

Whether you love her or hate her, HRC is a mogul in politics, serving during some of the most critical times in modern history. She knows politics better than most of the men currently in Congress. But even 50 years ago, she wouldn't have been taken seriously as a politician. In a recent Humans of New York post, she even talked about being harassed about her gender while waiting to take her admissions exam for law school, and that was in the 1970s! HRC herself is important (and her pantsuits symbolize this) because she is a woman making a name for herself in a man's world. She is the first female presidential nominee of the Democratic party. She is making waves in a way Susan B. Anthony and Elizabeth Cady Stanton could have only dreamed of doing. And she's wearing pants while she's doing it.

So the next time you start to make a comment about HRC's pant suits, think about what they really stand for: her right to be a strong, empowered woman, and to wear the pants just like any man can.