I realize we are in full campaign hagiography mode right now. U rah rah Hillary! But, let’s keep her accomplishments in perspective, because the Democratic Party is blessed with an extraordinarily talented group of women. We don’t need to say silly things like, “if Hillary were a man in 1992, she would have been president” because sexism.
There are countless women that, frankly, should have been running for President for the past three decades, and probably would have been if our male-dominated party, including, I might add, Bill Clinton, had made that process easier. Some of the best-known women in our party had far more political experience in 1992 than Hillary. Let’s run through a short list. No, it’s not a binder, but if it was, it would be the best damn binder of talented PEOPLE that you could assemble in this country:
1) Barbara Boxer — By 1992, she had served 10 years in Congress, holding a position on the Armed Forces Committee. Before that, she served six years on the Marin County Board of Supervisors. In 1992, she ran and won her first U.S. Senate election.
2) Dianne Feinstein — By 1992, Sen. Feinstein had already served 8 years on the San Francisco Board of Supervisors (she was elected the first female president of the Board) and 10 years as Mayor of San Francisco. She oversaw the 1984 Democratic National Convention. And, she ran, but lost, the 1990 California Governor’s race. Like Sen. Boxer, she would be elected to the Senate in a 1992 special election.
3) Nancy Pelosi — By 1992, Rep. Pelosi had already served 5 years as a CA congresswoman, and had served as a Democratic National Committee member since 1976. In 1993, she would co-found the Congressional Progressive Caucus (along with Bernie Sanders, I might add).
4) Madeleine M. Kunin — By 1992, Gov. Kunin had served in Vermont state government (in various positions) for 20 years. In 1978 she was elected Lt. Gov. of Vermont, and in 1984, she was elected Governor, beating by a healthy margin an upstart independent named Bernie Sanders. She was re-elected for three terms. She would wind up serving as Bill Clinton’s Deputy Secretary of Education.
5) Patty Murray (personal favorite) — Taught a preschool class for several years and a parenting class at a local community college. Got involved in local, school board politics. Was famously told that she was “just a mom in tennis shoes” before winning a local school board election in 1985, a Washington State Senate election in 1989, and becoming a US Senator in 1993. A completely different trajectory than the high-powered attorney route, but, to my mind, equally compelling.
6) Barbara Mikulski — She got her political start in 1971 on the Baltimore City Council. She ran for US Senate in 1974, but lost. She would recover by winning a US House Seat in 1976, and serving there until she ran for Senate again in 1986. This time, having faced vicious attacks from her opponent, including smears about her sexual orientation, she won the Senate seat that she’s held ever since.
7) Elizabeth Dole (OH GOD, I’VE GONE OFF THE DEEP END) — No, hear me out. This really demonstrates to me the bipartisan fucking sexist nonsense of our country. In 1996, Elizabeth Dole actually should have been running for president (again, if there were any justice in this world). She graduated from Harvard Law School as one of 25 female students (in a class of 500). She served in various public service positions as a consumer advocate in the Johnson Administration (yes, she was originally a Democrat). In 1973, she was appointed a member of the FTC, and became known for her fight against unfair lending practices and nursing home abuse. She became a Republican after marrying Bob Dole, briefly left government service, but returned to serve as Secretary of Transportation (first woman to ever command a U.S. Armed service) in the Reagan administration. She left government service to help her husband campaign for president, but returned in 1987 to serve as Labor Secretary under George H.W. Bush. In 1990, she became President of the American Red Cross.
Now, this list doesn’t include all of the very talented women that have served in the U.S. Cabinet, held prominent positions in state government, or excelled in the private sector. I couldn’t possibly compile such a list. It also doesn’t include those women that are “peers” of Hillary. Women like Kathleen Sebelius, Elizabeth Warren, Janet Napolitano, Christine Gregoire, etc… All of these individuals also have impeccable resumes that would, and should, make them presidential contenders.
When Hillary Clinton wins the presidency, it will be an amazing milestone in US history. She is an extraordinary representative of a generation of women that have done outstanding work for this country.
BUT, let’s keep her accomplishments in perspective. Any one of the above women, and countless others that I didn’t mention, could be running a successful presidential campaign right now if our country wasn’t ridiculously sexist. All of the above mentioned women were more qualified to launch a presidential campaign in 1992 than Hillary, and they all faced the same (and some might say, even greater) barriers to success (in other words, they weren’t men 25 years ago, but still were successful politicians).
Hillary’s path is very impressive. She put her time in as a private practice attorney. She worked in Washington in key roles as a young attorney. But, she chose Arkansas and Bill Clinton over her own career. The Rose Law Firm is old, but it’s hardly comparable to countless DC and NY firms, where she could have worked given her training and experience. Teaching a class at an Arkansas law school is nice, but hardly compares to teaching at a top tier school. She took a path that bound her future to Bill’s.
Could she have managed to create her own political career in 1974 rather than moving to Arkansas? It seems likely, but she didn’t. And so, by 1992, Hillary’s resume looked really similar to thousands of other women working throughout the country. They were all pioneers in many ways, especially in the legal field, but Hillary did not stand out.
So when someone makes the statement that “if Hillary were a man, she’d have been president 25 years ago”, we should all take a deep breath, remember how great it will be to have a female president, and then laugh at the absurdity of that statement. If this nation wasn’t ridiculously sexist, any one of the women above could have run for President in the last two decades and won.
[On a personal note, my mother, who was an incredibly successful elementary school teacher for more than 30 years, once told me that she would have attended law school in the 1960s if she felt that the path would have been open to her as a woman. She was such a magnificent teacher who touched so many lives. I would never wish that she had become a lawyer. However, I like to think that, if she had, she would have been President (or at least Governor of Wisconsin), so sorry Patti, my mom would have been President in 1992, not Hillary].