FALMOUTH — I perched on my couch and listened to the sound of another glass ceiling shattering. On television, Hillary Clinton spoke to her de facto status as the first woman presidential nominee of a major political party.
Women in positions of political power are nothing new in Maine. We claim sisterhood with U.S. Sen. Margaret Chase Smith, after all. But there is a difference between competing on the national stage and coming within reach of the highest office in the land. Sitting in my living room, I thought about the women who preceded this moment and the ones for whom this will be the new norm.
It is a rite of passage in our family to learn to recite the names of my grandmother and her siblings. Imagine this string, spoken very fast: Papa, Mama, Tilly, Emma, Hilda, Ole, Josie, Johnnie, Guerina, Mae Belle, George and Charlie.
Eighth in line in this first-generation Norwegian clan, Nana was born in Eau Claire, Wisconsin, in 1897. Both of Nana’s parents died when she was in elementary school, and she was raised by her older siblings. That’s a benefit of a large family – when you are orphaned, there’s someone there to pick up the pieces and keep the family intact.
But no parents meant no college, so Nana went to work after graduating from high school. As often happens in life, what was initially heartbreaking turned into a hidden blessing, since she met my grandfather at her job.
He brought her Hershey chocolate bars at her desk, winning her over with a sweetness that remained throughout their 63-year marriage. Nana saw the passage of the 19th Amendment when she was 23, but in her 100 years of life, she never had the opportunity to vote for a woman for president.
Nana ensured that my mother, Jane, had the opportunity to attend college. Mom’s major was home economics – probably not an academic offering we’d see these days. But she turned that gendered choice into a varied food career in magazines, television and new-product development. We were often the taste testers for her recipe creations, and I can assure you there is a good reason why microwave cakes never became standard.
Mom’s income was important to our family, yet she watched men advance with greater speed and less judgment. Her peer group also thought that work was a hobby for her.
In our suburban, middle-class town, she dreaded going to the grocery store, where she would be greeted in the aisles with the awkward question, “Oh, are you still working?” Her salary was not used for incidentals or extras; rather, it carried equal weight with my father’s, paying the mortgage and educating my sisters and me.
Mom worked the second shift as well, serving as Girl Scout leader, class parent and chief cheerleader for her kids and grandkids. She led by example, pulled the family up in times of challenge and showed what a rich broth could be created from a recipe of love, optimism and grit.
Mom lived until she was 78 but never had the option of voting for another working mother who could carry her experiences to the Oval Office.
In my all-female high school, girls were everything – the best student, the captain, the editor, the first violin, the class president. We could do or achieve anything, provided we put in the hard work. This was our girl power. We launched into college and beyond confident that we would have a seat at any table we chose. We know that many women hear the opposite message: They’re not good enough, smart enough, pretty enough.
I worked with domestic violence victims during law school in the mid-1990s, when the dialogue about personal safety was shifting. What had been a silent, private issue became a public priority.
Our laws and perspective have progressed in many respects, yet still we debate, and sometimes limit, women’s choices about their own bodies and autonomy. But now I’ll have the chance to bring a woman’s voice and perspective to the White House.
Glass is made by fusing together sand with other minerals at very high temperatures. The penultimate political glass ceiling has been broken. Instead of tossing those shards aside, let’s take the pieces – educational access for all women, equal pay, personal safety and autonomy, among others – and meld them together to create a glass pedestal. We now have a woman candidate to stand on it.
I think Nana and Mom would appreciate that choice on Election Day. I know that I do.
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