14 reasons why Hillary Clinton is a big f*cking deal today
After months of trying to defend her emails and years of trying to crawl out of her husband's scandals, Hillary Clinton finally has some good news to celebrate today: with her primary victories last night she has become the first female presumptive presidential nominee of any major presidential party.
On Monday, Clinton surpassed the magical number of delegates needed to capture the Democratic nomination. If recent polling is to be trusted, she's now positioned to become the first female President of the United States.
Obviously, gender shouldn't be the only reason we nominate a candidate -- but it's nonetheless an important variable, and today is a big f*cking deal for precisely that reason.
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Here are 14 reasons why.
1. She has the chance to become the first American female president in 240 years of American presidential history.
2. Women got the right to vote less than a 100 years ago. Today, women are nearly four percent more likely to vote than men.
3. Slightly less than 20 percent of Congress is made up of women. 50 percent of the Supreme Court is made up of women -- the highest it's ever been. Clinton is poised to join the ranks of women who've been busy making history the past eight years:
4. It's not just that she's a woman -- she'll be our first presidential nominee to call herself a feminist.
Asked how she felt about the controversial word "feminist" in 2014, Clinton responded: "I don’t see anything controversial about that at all."
5. Having a woman at the top of the ticket empowers other women to run, and makes it easier for them to get elected in Congress and state legislatures (a "trickle down" effect).
6. England, Germany, France, Ireland, Turkey, New Zealand, Sri Lanka, Israel, Liberia, Pakistan and Bangladesh have all had female leaders. And we -- we have had this guy.
7. She has promised to bring women and women's health issues center stage in a way previous male Presidents have not.
Hillary Clinton: "The whole country is waiting to see if the rights of women and girls will be respected, especially over our bodies and health care."
Donald Trump on women's health:
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8. Women are more likely to introduce pesky bills about "civil rights" and "civil liberties" and income inequality.
9. Female politicians have been consistently told throughout history that they lack the qualifications for office and should probably just stop running.
Hillary's response:
10. A recent study found that having a woman in a top leadership position correlates with a 6.8 percent increase in GDP.
11. Female leaders are more likely to care about issues of poverty and inequality.
12. The founding fathers saw women as moral creatures and as fey mothers, not built for the "coarse reality of politics." Clinton has a few minor political accomplishments sprinkled on her LinkedIn page (Former Secretary of State, former Senator of one of the most populous states in the country, visited 112 countries, helped to expand children's health insurance for millions of American children, etc).
13. She may become the first female president in United States history. But it seems like someone else is itching for the title.
14. 1945: 55 percent of voters said they would not vote for a female president.
1975: 23 percent of voters said the same thing.
2016: This. Today.
Topics Elections Hillary Clinton Politics
Heather was the Web Trends reporter at Mashable NYC. Prior to joining Mashable, Heather wrote regularly for UPROXX and GOOD Magazine, was published in The Daily Dot and VICE, and had her work featured in Entertainment Weekly, Jezebel, Mic, and Gawker. She loves small terrible dogs and responsible driving. Follow her on Twitter @wear_a_helmet.
