Last glass ceiling for Hillary to break

Not many female politicians have lived as dramatic life as Hillary Clinton. From successful lawyer to politician's wife, first lady, senator, running for the Democratic party nomination and then becoming Secretary of State; she is now a presidential candidate. When her candidacy was confirmed, she delivered a speech in Brooklyn, New York, stating, "Tonight's victory is not about one person. It belongs to generations of women and men who struggled and sacrificed and made this moment possible."

Clinton's candidacy is a monumental case as women were given political rights later than African Americans. 200 years ago, the third U.S. President Thomas Jefferson, who is considered an "American Founding Father," noted, "Our good ladies, I trust, have been too wise to wrinkle their foreheads with politics. They are contented to soothe and calm the minds of their husbands returning from political debate." The glass ceiling was quite hard in the U.S. as well.

Once asked about an ideal image of a female U.S. president, Clinton chose her mother. Dorothy Howell Rodham was born on June 4, 1919, when the Equal Rights Amendment was passed which gave women political rights. When Rodham was eight, her parents divorced. She took her three-year-old sister and traveled for three days by train from Chicago to California where her grandmother lived. She was a very independent woman. Clinton mentioned her mother in the speech: "My mother believed that life is about serving others. And she taught me never to back down from a bully which it turns out was pretty good advice." She declared that she would fight against Trump.

This presidential election is expected to see the worst negative election campaign that lacks policies and debates. Unlike Trump with his blunt style, Clinton will have to overcome the image of Washington's obsolete vested interest, as younger voters from 18 to 33 years old who supported Bernie Sanders state that they would rather choose Trump over Clinton. American voters may be in agony as they would have to vote for the lesser evil in the election. Hopefully, they will show that history is moving toward progress.

정성희기자 shchung@donga.com