The historic significance of voting for the first woman nominee to run for president of a major party has been somewhat subjugated, to focus on credentials and agenda, not gender. That is until Tuesday night, when Hillary Clinton voters reached the milestone mark of delegates to clinch the popular vote and majority of pledge delegates. Clinton was declared by the Democratic party to become the first woman major party presidential nominee. A clarion chorus of Helen Reddy's "I am woman, hear me roar, in numbers too big to ignore" could be heard rallying across the country.
How appropriate that this historic record was reached on the eighth anniversary of Clinton's concession speech. On June 7, 2008, she memorably remarked to supporters, "Although we weren't able to shatter that highest, hardest glass ceiling this time, thanks to you it's got about 18 million cracks in it."
It took 72 years for American women to be granted suffrage. From the First Women's Rights Convention in Seneca Falls, N.Y., in 1848, and 19 successive congressional campaigns, to the 1920 ratification of the Nineteenth Amendment. The "Susan B. Anthony Amendment" granted all American women the right to vote. Geraldine Ferraro, in 1984, and Sarah Palin, in 2008, blazed the trail to the top of the ticket, as Veep nominees for the Democrats and Republicans, respectively. Hillary Clinton voters just shattered the highest and hardest ceiling to gender equality.
Hence, my mission is to document women's history, often missing from traditional textbooks and media coverage, as founder of "Women Make News and History Every Day Database." *
Congratulations to former Secretary of State and Senator and First Lady Hillary Clinton!
"Celebrate Women Every Day and Make History!" at www.beverlywettenstein.com.
WOMEN MAKE NEWS AND HISTORY: JUNE 7 *
2016 Hillary Clinton reached the necessary number of delegates to be declared the
Democratic presidential nominee and the first woman nominee of major party.
1953 Mary Terrell won fight to end segregation in Washington, D.C. restaurants.
Activist for civil and women's rights was co-founder of NAACP. Her home in
Washington, D.C. was named a National Historic Landmark.
1943 Nikki Giovanni born. African-American poet.
1917 Gwendolyn Brooks born. First African-American woman poet and novelist won
Pulitzer Prize, for Poetry, Annie Allen, 1950. Poet Laureate, Illinois, 1968;
Library of Congress, 1985.
1909 Virginia Apgar born. Pediatrician, surgeon, obstetrician and anesthesiologist
invented the Apgar Score System to diagnose newborn infants health immediately
after birth, in 1952. First woman full professor on Columbia University College of
Physicians and Surgeons faculty, 1949.
1909 Jessica Tandy born. Kennedy Center Honors, 1986. Oldest actress to win Best
Actress Academy for "Driving Miss Daisy," 1989, at 80 years of age.
* Source: Beverly Wettenstein's "Women Make News and History Every Day Database"