With all of the political unrest that has surrounded this current presidential election, it is important to take a step back and appreciate the history that was made on July 28, 2016. The first woman in the history of our country has accepted a major party’s nomination for the President of the United States of America.
I consider myself to be so lucky because I am only 19 years old as I watch the glass ceiling begin to shatter. In a historic moment such as this, I think about those throughout history that have fought for gender equality. In 1776, Abigail Adams wrote to her husband John Adams, asking him to “remember the ladies” when drafting the country’s new code of law. Abraham Lincoln believed in “all sharing the privileges of government who assist in bearing its burden, by no means excluding women.” Susan B. Anthony made her life’s work ensuring that women would be given the right to vote. She believed “there never will be complete equality until women themselves help to make laws and elect lawmakers.” In 1920, the suffragist movement finally succeeded when the 19th Amendment granted American Women the right to vote.
In the days following July 28, I think about how my mother has lived through five decades without seeing an American woman come close to a presidency. I think about the stories that my mother has told from when she began working her first job in the mid-1980s. A time where walking through the trading floor of a company as a young woman was met with whistles. I couldn’t even imagine the anger she must have felt. She was just as qualified, just as educated and just as hardworking as these men. Even so, she was harassed solely on the basis of her gender.
I think about the future generations and hope they will live in a society that treats both genders as equal. I hope that they will grow up to abhor gender inequality. I hope they will be strong men and women who will continue to face adversity with a fighting spirit and will ensure America remains a country by the people and for the people. I want this historic moment to turn into the societal norm. It gives me hope that the political arena is becoming more inclusive to all Americans.
We have come so far as a country and we still have further to go. But I encourage those on both sides of the aisle to take a moment and celebrate this historic moment that we have accomplished as Americans. It has been a long time coming, but as Hillary Clinton says “the rights of women and girls [are] the unfinished business of the 21st century.”
