Glass ceiling status: Intact
It’s all over bar the final counting: Donald Trump is the 45th president of the United States, after mounting one of the most unprecedented and divisive campaigns in the 240 year history of America.
Glass ceiling status: Intact.
Trump’s victory over Hillary Clinton concludes one of the most bitter political contest the country has ever experienced – one marked by a deep mistrust of both candidates, two visions for America separated by a vast gulf, and resurgent strains of racism, sexism and Islamophobia.
This is the divided country that faces Trump as he steps into the presidency. Clinton is still, perhaps, projected to win the popular vote.
But with Republicans retaining control of the Senate and the House, Trump is well-positioned to act upon the promises that were the focal point of his campaign. A crackdown on immigration into the United States. A wall that spans the entirety of the US border with Mexico. A focus on white working-class regions of the country, conservative nominees to the supreme court, and a protectionist trade stance. And a combative position on the world stage, including a belligerent relationship with many longtime foreign allies.
On that note, we are closing the Glass Ceiling Watch blog.
Click here for more updates on our rolling live blog.
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The Guardian – along with Associated Press and others – have called the election for Donald Trump.
The counting isn’t finished but the Clinton path to victory has all but disappeared.
We won’t see Hillary Clinton tonight.
Her campaign chairman, John Podesta, has just told supporters gathered at the Javits Center to go home and get some sleep:
I know you’ve been here a long time. We’re still counting votes, and every vote should count.
Several states are still close to call, so we’re not going to have anything more to say tonight.
Everyone should head home. You should get some sleep. We’ll have more to say tomorrow.
We are so proud of you, and we are so proud of her. She has done amazing things and she’s not done yet.
So, no concession speech. But no party either.
Kamala Harris – who earlier won her own election to become the first black politician ever to represent California in the Senate – is not giving up:
I intend to fight. I intend to fight against those naysayers who say there is no such thing as climate change.
— Kamala Harris (@KamalaHarris) November 9, 2016
We must not despair. We must not be overwhelmed or throw up our hands. It is time to roll up our sleeves and fight for who we are!
— Kamala Harris (@KamalaHarris) November 9, 2016
The election has yet to be called, but tears are starting to flow at the Javits Center:
Little girl sobbing comforted by mother. Scene from @HillaryClinton event. 2 hours ago she said she cd b POTUS too pic.twitter.com/emHazkv1a0
— Heidi Przybyla (@HeidiPrzybyla) November 9, 2016
Catherine Cortez Masto has been declared the winner of the Senate race in Nevada by the AP. She will be the first woman to represent the state in the US Senate and the chamber’s first Latina.
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Over at FiveThirtyEight, Clare Malone has an early breakdown of how white people voted based on their gender and their education. Of note:
College-educated white women voted for Clinton 51 percent to 45 percent, but non-college-educated white women voted for Trump 62 percent to 34 percent. That difference is nothing but stark and something we saw inklings of in October, when I wrote about how many Republican women were willing to overlook Trump’s history of sexual harassment allegations and derogatory comments about women. Partisanship is a hell of a drug.
Florida goes to Trump. Clinton wins Colorado. As the results keep on coming, keep up to date with our live blog.
Kamala Harris has been named the winner of the Senate race in California. She will be the fourth woman of color to serve in the US Senate, joining Illinois’ Tammy Duckworth, who won her race earlier tonight.
Until tonight, only two women of color had ever been elected to the US Senate: Carol Moseley Braun, from Illinois, and Mazie Hirono, who still serves the state of Hawaii as Senator today.
‘I want to ask Nate Silver why his methodology is so flawed’
I started the evening at an election watch party where the mood was jubilant; people were celebrating; Clinton was definitely going to win. A couple of hours later, things have swung steadily in Trump’s direction. I’m at a different watch party, at the Wing, an upscale women’s member club in Manhattan; it’s starting to feel less like a party and more like group therapy. Many of the well dressed women here seem to be in the process of biting their nails off.
“I don’t think I can eat or drink anything,” says one woman, flustered, standing in front of a slick bar covered in pizza slices and bottles of wine. “I’m too nervous.”
“I want to ask Nate Silver, whose website I’ve been checking religiously, why his methodology is so flawed,” Audrey Gelman, co-founder of The Wing tells me. There’s a collective sense of incredulity, almost anger, that the polls were so wrong.
Gelman says she’s “frightened” by the prospect of a Trump presidency, particularly considering the disturbing “levels of vitriol and misogyny in this campaign.” Still, she says, she’s comforted by the fact that she’s in this space, “surrounded by hundreds of women.”
If Hillary loses will it set women’s rights back? I ask Lauren Kassan, co-founder of the Wing. Kassan doesn’t think so; “women are going to come together more than ever and it’s why [women-only] spaces like this are even more important.”
The Virginia call comes in and, shortly after, it’s announced that Clinton is still projected to win. A big cheer goes up. You can practically feel the tension break. The volume in the room goes up. People start eating the pizza again. No one is getting too comfortable though. It’s very clear that if tonight ends in a victory for Hillary it’s going to have been a lot closer than anyone predicted.
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Results update: Ohio and Florida called for Trump. Colorado and Virginia called for Clinton. Follow the rest of the results on our politics live blog.
Anxiety builds inside the Javits Center:
In the women's restroom at the Javits Center complete strangers are asking each other how they're holding up
— Ashley Fetters (@AshleyFetters) November 9, 2016
Results update: At this stage in the evening, our politics team is reporting that Clinton needs at least Michigan or Wisconsin to make it through, and she quite likely needs both. They’re counting hard now in the upper Midwest.
Obama won Michigan by 9.5% in 2012. He won Wisconsin by 6.7%. No such margins for Clinton tonight.
Here’s how hard it is to become president when you’re a (fictional) woman
Turns out it’s pretty unusual for a woman to be president of the United States in the fictional world, too. There are only a handful of examples, and most of them involve exceptional circumstances.
The most common reason in fiction a woman becomes president? The men have died. Here are a few standouts:
Mars Attacks!
When this 1996 space invasion movie opens, Taffy, played by a 14-year-old Natalie Portman, is the president’s teenage daughter. Then, Mars attacks. By the time Earth defeats the aliens, the entire federal government is dead, and Taffy appears to be the president. Which, sure. That’s totally how that works.
Commander in Chief
In this short-lived ABC series, America got its first female president when the sitting president, a dude, died of an aneurysm. Geena Davis played Vice President-turned-President Mackenzie Allen.
Battlestar Galactica
On a planet that looks a lot like Earth, in a country that seems a lot like the United States, Education Secretary Laura Roslin becomes president after an artificially intelligent species from outer space launches a surprise attack on humanity. (OK, so our worlds are slightly different.)
The attack kills off all but a few hundred humans, and Roslin, one of the few survivors from civilian government, becomes our first female space president.
Y: The Last Man
Sometimes, every man on the planet has to die before a woman can become the president of the United States. You know how it is.
In this dystopian comic series by Brian K. Vaughan, Agriculture Secretary Margaret Valentine becomes the president after a mysterious force kills off almost every human with a Y-chromosome. The scourge places Valentine next in line for succession. Later in the series, Valentine wins reelection because Oprah wasn’t available. (Really.)
Honorable mention: Air Force One
When Russian terrorists seize control the president’s plane and hold his family hostage, you would expect the vice president to take the wheel. Just for a few hours, so Harrison Ford has the space he needs to body-slam those terrorists off his plane.
But in Air Force One, when members of the government urge Vice President Glenn Close to declare the president – WHO IS A HOSTAGE – unable to perform his duties, she refuses.
C’mon girl.
Meanwhile, at the Javits center...
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Razor-thin margins
More results: Trump has won the state of Texas, Nebraska, Wyoming, Kansas, North Dakota and South Dakota and Louisiana. Clinton won Connecticut. Check our live results page here.
Is this the first Muslim refugee to hold elected office in the US?
Ilhan Omar is projected to be the first Somali-American Muslim women to win public office in America. She has been elected a state representative in Minnesota.
Omar, who spent four years in a Kenyan refugee camp after fleeing Somalia as child, is also believed to be the first Muslim refugee to hold elected office in the US and the first Somali-American state legislator.
Omar told the Guardian in February how being a Muslim woman in office could change how people see the political process:
For me, this is my country, this is for my future, for my children’s future and for my grandchildren’s future to make our democracy more vibrant, more inclusive, more accessible and transparent which is going to be useful for all of us.
I think we now need to make sure we are ushering in new leaders who are women, who speak to a broader community, and who are intersectional feminists who will empower and engage and pave the way for young women like my daughters.
Read a Guardian profile of Omar from earlier this year:
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‘I’ve been feeling anxious for a year. All of us have.’
I’m at an election watch party in New York’s meatpacking district, jointly hosted by a number of women’s reproductive rights organizations including Planned Parenthood, National Institute for Reproductive Health Action Fund, and Shout Your Abortion NYC.
With “the Supreme Court nomination and Trump promising to overturn Roe v Wade” there’s a lot at stake for women’s reproductive rights in this election, Alex, a development associate with Planned Parenthood, tells me. Everyone’s feeling nervous. “I’ve been feeling anxious for a year,” Amanda, an activist, says. “I think all of us have.”
Despite the frayed nerves, the mood amongst the 200 or so attendees, 80% of whom are millennial women, is upbeat. It’s relatively early in the night; the results are nail-bitingly close but people are cautiously confident. A lot of people have come dressed for the occasion in The Future is Female or Nasty Women T-Shirts. There are a lot of Hillary badges, of course, and a few people have donned pantsuits.
There’s an immense amount of respect for Clinton in this room. A feeling that she spoke out for women when it wasn’t popular to do so. That she’s spent her whole life working for women. “The important thing is the conversation now is about every woman, no matter your sexuality or race,” Samantha, a 20-something New Yorker tells me. Like many people at this party, Samantha has been doing all she can to get Clinton elected, volunteering for the campaign since the primaries. She’s been canvassing but also doing more unconventional campaigning; last night she was part of a pantsuit dance in Washington Square.
Whatever happens tonight, there’s a palpable feeling that history is being made in these very minutes. As Samantha told me: “In the words of [hit Broadway musical] Hamilton, history is happening in Manhattan. We just happen to be in the greatest city in the world.”
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Lisa Blunt Rochester, a Democrat, is projected to win her House race in Delaware’s at-large district, making her the first woman and first person of color to represent the state in the US Congress.
Before Rochester’s election, Delaware was one of only three states that had never elected a woman to the House or the Senate.
Tammy Duckworth is projected as the winner of Illinois’ hard-fought Senate race. Duckworth, a Democrat, beat out incumbent Mark Kirk in a contest that is crucial to the control of the upper chamber.
Duckworth’s election makes her the third woman of color to be elected to the US Senate. She is a decorated veteran of the Iraq War, having lost both legs when a helicopter she was piloting was shot down. The first woman veteran to serve in the Senate, Republican Joni Ernst, was elected just two years ago.
Read the Guardian profile of Duckworth from earlier this year:
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Hillary Clinton thanks 'Pantsuit Nation'
You might have heard of Pantsuit Nation, the upbeat, invitation-only Facebook group of Hillary Clinton supporters. The group was created to “celebrate the historic possibility of the first female president”, according to the New York Times.
Apparently, Clinton has too. She sent a note to the group, thanking them for their support on election day.
“I’m honored and humbled to have all of you with me, but I’m even prouder to see this community represent the best of America: people of all backgrounds and beliefs who share a vision for a brighter future for our children, and who have each other’s backs. That’s who we really are, and tonight, we’re going to prove it,” Clinton wrote.
Hillary Clinton left this note in the Pantsuit Nation FB group and now I'll truly never stop crying ✊ ❤️ pic.twitter.com/bP5EK0zd9f
— Kristin Harris (@KristinHarris) November 8, 2016
Guardian writer Megan Carpentier is reporting from Wellesley, Hillary clinton’s alma mater. This is her favorite T-shirt so far.
Favorite Nasty Woman t-shirt so far today. (It was a surprise from her boyfriend, so designer unknown). pic.twitter.com/IDzbphEkuh
— Megan Carpentier (@megancarpentier) November 9, 2016
‘Do you think Oprah Winfrey could run for president? I don’t think so’
The run up to the presidential elections has sometimes felt so acrimonious, and indeed existentially worrying. But for many women of Hillary Clinton’s generation and older, the momentous and historic nature of this election is impossible to deny.
The Guardian spoke to three older women to get their brief insight into what possibly placing a woman as president in the White House feels like to them, the kinds of struggles they have faced and overcome, and the battles they feel have yet to be won.
Thelma Baxter, whose father was white and whose mother was black and Native American, says she faced discrimination as a woman of color. She is proud to vote for Hillary Clinton in this election while noting that for women of color, more challenges remain.
“If you are a woman, you have to be better qualified. Do you think Oprah Winfrey could run for president? I don’t think so.”
The results are trickling in.
Florida is looking very vulnerable for Trump. Trump won Tennessee. Trump is projected to win South Carolina. Clinton won Maryland, Vermont, Massachusetts.
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What are all the famous feminists up to tonight?
Katy Perry was applying extra eyelash glue:
At the Saturday Night Live studio, Leslie Jones has cupcakes:
Padma Lakshmi told the Guardian she was looking forward to sharing tonight with her daughter, and she is expecting Clinton to win.
It is incredibly meaningful to me to see a woman elected to the highest office in the United States. It is a historical moment for all Americans, and indeed all women around the world. It’s been almost 100 years since women got the right to vote with the women’s suffragette movement here in the United States, and it’s taken us that long to get to this point.
Joss Whedon, The Avengers director and creator of Buffy the Vampire Slayer, told the Guardian he would be enjoying a stiff drink at the election party for his pro-Clinton Super PAC:
We’ll drink, we’ll curse, we’ll cheer, we’ll sweat every race and come the big finish we’ll make some noise. I expect it to be a joyful one.
When it’s all done, we’ll dance. When I throw parties, we dance. (If the unthinkable occurs, it’ll probably be one of those Footloose-style anger dances though. Could get out of hand.)
This should be the most meaningful political event in my life. Yet I feel oddly unmoved, and I’m just now confronting why. I think it’s because I can hear my Mom rolling her eyes from beyond the grave and saying, “It took THIS LONG?” To me it’s not a sea change, it’s a book report handed in too late to get full credit. I know I’m wrong, it IS a sea change, and at some point I’ll see a little girl having an Obama-hair moment and I’ll cry for an hour. But for now, I just want the shit-show to end so the lady can get to work.
Lena Dunham spent the last day of the election phone banking for Clinton:
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Women all over the world wonder: who will win?
Germany
France
El Salvador
Scotland
Guests take a selfie at a US election party organised by the US Consulate General in Scotland at the University of Edinburgh. Photograph: Jane Barlow/PA
Senegal
England
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Shirley Chisholm: the first woman to run for president as a Democrat
Hillary Clinton was the first woman to succeed in winning the Democratic nomination for president — but she wasn’t the first woman to try. That honor goes to Rep. Shirley Chisholm, a progressive fighter from the Bedford-Stuyvesant neighborhood of Brooklyn and the first black woman elected to Congress.
Chisholm died in 2005. The Guardian asked California’s Rep. Barbara Lee, her friend and mentee, what Chisholm’s historic run meant to her. Here’s what Lee said:
Shirley Chisholm faced many, many obstacles and barriers related to sexism and racism, in a very big way. It was related to what she stood for. She was a progressive woman. She spoke out against the Vietnam War, she was pro-choice, she spoke fluent Spanish, she was for immigration rights. She was a clear-thinking, focused woman who did not want to just tinker around the edges of the system. She wanted to change it, to revolutionize it. To shatter it.
Shirley always said, “If you’re a woman, you’re not elected to play by the rules but to change the rules, because those rules weren’t crafted by women.” And, “If you don’t have a seat at the table, bring a folding chair.”
She had a hard time being taken seriously, especially by men. I saw her, on many occasions, working hard to convince people that they should support her, and they would say, “Why are you doing this? A woman will never be president, an African American person will never be president.” She really paved the way for Rev. Jesse Jackson’s run, for President Barack Obama’s run.
On election night, I’ll be thinking about her legacy, and how Hillary is such a part of that. It worked. All that hard work, all that criticism, you took, how you stood firm? We learned a lot from that, and you paved the way.
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And now for some exit polls news. According to Bloomberg, voters reported being troubled by Trump’s treatment of women.
Exit poll results released earlier in the evening showed 51% of voters were bothered a lot by Trump’s treatment of women, while Clinton use of private e-mail while secretary of state was troubling to 44%, according to preliminary exit polling published as voting ended in some states.
‘I voted for Trump because he’s a pro-life advocate’
All day we’ve been bringing you vox pops of women at the polls – most of whom have talked about voting for Clinton. The last one we spoke to, however, is not #withHer.
“I was delighted to vote for Donald Trump, because he’s a pro-life advocate,” said Laurie Jones, 45, who was with her seven year-old daughter Juliet at a polling station in downtown Manhattan.
“If you’re pro women and pro girls, you’ve got to support baby girls,” said Jones. She hoped that Trump’s selection of Supreme Court Justices would be able to overturn Roe v Wade and return abortion rights to the state.
She noted that years ago Trump, like her, had been pro-choice. “It’s a life journey for each of us,” said the nutritionist who lives in downtown Manhattan.
“He’s an imperfect person, like all of us. I do believe he does like women, he cares for his daughters and wife and female employees, he does respect women,” she said.
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Catching up with Macy Friday - the girl in that 'Hillary Clintaaaaaan!!!!’ picture
When Macy Friday met Hillary Clinton at a campaign stop in Denver back in 2014 she was very, very, VERY excited.
So excited, in fact, that the picture of the then 10-year-old Macy clutching Hillary’s hand took the internet by storm.
Two years after that photo, with just hours to go before we know if Hillary Clinton is going to be the first female president of the US, how’s Macy feeling? Is she still as excited, or has the 12 year old been jaded by age?
I gave her a call in Colorado (she’d just finished school) to find out.
So how was it meeting Hillary? You were clearly very excited!
[There is a tweenage squeal of confirmation.] I knew she was the first lady and I’ve never met anyone famous. And I knew a lot of her because my brother did a research project about her in fourth grade.
Have you been as excited since?
When I got an iPhone 6 for Christmas.
What do you admire about Hillary?
I think she’s a good sport. She knows what she’s talking about. She’s really inspirational and kind.
And how do you feel about her potentially being president?
I knew she was thinking about running [when I met her] but she hadn’t announced. I was really happy when she did. I’ve been rooting for her the whole time.
What would a female president mean to you?
It would make me feel really happy. There’s never been a female president in all these years. She’s a great girl role model [for equality]… like if girls are worried about playing a sport because they think it’s only for boys. She’s a role model for everyone.
What would you say to people who think women can’t be president?
I would tell them to go do something better with their time than disgrace women.
I feel like Trump’s been very disrespectful to women. It’s a cool fact that he’s running against a woman when he’s said so many mean things about them. He’s neck and neck with a gender that he’s been very mean about.
Any plans to go into politics yourself?
I don’t know if I want to go into politics. It’s a hard job. [But Hillary’s] inspired me, not necessarily to go into politics, but that girls are as equal.
Anything to say to Donald Trump?
Good luck. Best wishes. Go back to reality TV.
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1975: what was Hillary like when she was in charge of a classroom?
A lot of analysis this election has centered on both candidates’ differing speaking styles. Donald Trump was heavily criticized for interrupting his opponent during debates, as well as looming over her in a somewhat arresting fashion. Hillary Clinton was equally criticized for being a lackluster speaker who is better at formulating policies than she is at selling them to the public.
But has her demeanor changed over the years?
An appraisal from a class she taught in 1975 at the University of Arkansas – criminal law – suggests that, at least as far as how she occupies physical space, not a lot has changed: she was a “limited pacer” then, and is a limited pacer now.
Prof Rodham is a good manager of the classroom situation; she controls the students well, seems to know many of them by name, handles their questions in the time-tested manner of turning them back on the students, and keeps the class moving in a spirited fashion.
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Some voters will stop at nothing to cast their vote – even giving birth can’t stand in their way. The Telegraph reports:
Sosha Adelstein knew she was due to give birth on election day - but that did not stop her from doing her civic duty. The first-time voter, who is from Boulder, Colorado, started having contractions a day early and was rushed to hospital.
But in an impressive display of citizenship, the 31-year-old insisted on stopping at the local polling station along the way so she could cast a vote for Hillary Clinton.
Voter, we salute you.
Other “firsts” on the ballot today
The first Native American woman to serve in Congress. The first South Asian American woman to serve in Congress. The first Latina to serve in the Senate. The first out trans woman in either chamber. The first Muslim refugee and first Somali American woman to hold elected office anywhere in America.
All of these firsts are on the table tonight as voting wraps up across the country.
While we wait for results, you can read the Guardian’s profile of Ilhan Omar of Minnesota, a House candidate who, if elected, would be the first Somali American and first Muslim refugee elected to political office in America. And read our profile of Denise Juneau, a Montana candidate who hopes to become the first Native American elected to the House.
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These states could finally elect their first woman to the Senate or House
Hillary Clinton isn’t the only candidate whose election would shatter the glass ceiling. To date, 29 states have never elected a woman to either the US House or the US Senate. And three states – Delaware, Mississippi, and Vermont – have never sent a woman to either chamber.
That may change tonight. In six states, there are women on the ballot whose election would break new barriers. The Senate candidates are: Ann Kirkpatrick of Arizona, Catherine Cortez Masto of Nevada, Katie McGinty of Pennsylvania, and Misty Snow of Utah. The House candidates are: Lisa Blunt Rochester of Delaware, and Monica Vernon and Kim Weaver of Iowa.
Masto, McGinty, and Vernon are in tight races. Rochester is projected to win. Kirkpatrick, Snow, and Weaver are all considered longshots. But Snow, if elected, would make history as the first transgender person to serve in either chamber of US Congress.
We’ll update this map tonight once results come in.
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Women for Trump: ‘We’re not voting for someone based on their character’
When it comes to courting the women’s vote, Donald Trump certainly could have done better. His campaign was plagued by accusations of sexism; his “locker room talk” had women recalling their own harrowing stories of assault. But on Monday, Trump told supporters in Florida that he’s confident women will come out to support him – specifically in Philadelphia, in the critical state of Pennsylvania.
“The women are going to come out - you watch. The women are going to come out big”, he said.
Whether he’s right remains to be seen, but one thing for sure is that women do support him. Recently, New York Magazine profiled nine women who have vowed to support Trump until the end. Here’s a little bit of what they said.
My faith will not allow me to vote for a candidate who believes abortion is right. I would love to see a woman president. Get Condoleezza Rice in there. I’m telling you what, if she ran, I would campaign for her. But Hillary and I don’t share the same values. – Tina Vondran
We’re not voting for someone based on their character. We’re way past that in this election. I think it’s a disgrace to have Clinton as our first woman president. She does not represent women at all — or me, as a woman, at all. I’m sorry. Her husband is such scum. I’ve never heard about Trump cheating. I know he’s had multiple marriages — which, in today’s society, who doesn’t? – Allison Doyle
We have become so wussified. Pretty soon, saying hello to someone is going to be considered harassment. I have a few friends who just want to believe whatever the liberal news media tells them. They don’t want to get information on their own. That’s how I decided on Trump. I saw him in person and I was blown away. He’s a businessman, and I think that’s what this country needs: someone to figure out what we’re going to do with our economy, because it’s tanking. – Merchon Andersen
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‘It won’t just be Beyonce anymore’
Rose Hackman talked to two more first time voters. The first one was a bit more subdued about her support for the Democratic candidate.
Joii Espinosa-Patterson, 26, professional dog walker and trainer
Joii Espinosa-Patterson was happy to be voting for Hillary clinton, but she still had a number of reservations. She said it would be great to add Clinton to the list of role models out there. “It won’t just be Beyonce anymore.”
All in all though, Espinosa-Patterson, who is mother to a very young son, said Hillary Clinton may be good for women, but she wasn’t sure how useful she would be on issues far closer to her heart.
“I am an African-American woman with a son. That means I am raising a black man. I want to know my son has a future in this country: that he’s going to be able to find a job and be financially stable, and that he’s going to be safe.”
“I am not sure about either candidate on that.”
Vivian Klotz, 18, student
The symbolism of voting for Hillary Clinton was not lost on 18-year-old New York student, Vivian Klotz.
Particularly exhilarating for Klotz was the fact that Hillary Clinton had come out on top in a process that sought out the best and most qualified candidates. “When you see all the options, and then to see her name. That’s a good feeling.”
Klotz likes that Clinton has a long track record fighting for the issues she cares about.
“She’s been fighting for women’s rights and LGBTQ rights for longer than I have been alive,” Klotz said of Clinton, who at 69 is more than half a century older than her.
“That gives me the confidence in her as a politician to make difficult, and right choices on the issues I know less about.”
There’s still time to make your pilgrimage to the monuments of prominent suffragettes. And while throngs of people have visited Susan B Anthony’s grave site – lining up by the hundreds to place their “I Voted” stickers on her headstone – there are plenty of others.
Some paid their respects to iconic black suffragettes and leaders like Ida B Wells, Sojourner Truth, and Shirley Chisholm.
I'd put my voting sticker on Ida B. Wells's grave.
— roxane gay (@rgay) November 8, 2016
⚡️ “On #ElectionDay, honor these Black women by visiting their graves”https://t.co/Oog0H7YaeQ
— Philip Lewis (@Phil_Lewis_) November 8, 2016
Others, who couldn’t physically go to her grave site, left digital messages for Wells on Find A Grave:
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Hillary’s bumpy ride – video
It’s been a long 18 months. We wouldn’t ask anyone to live through it again, but if you’ve got two minutes to spare it’s worth revisiting the highs and lows of the Clinton campaign – from the day she launched her candidacy on 13 April 2015 to her final rally on Tuesday night. Pat yourself on the back. It’s almost over.
Hillary Clinton: big-bucks-breadwinner?
Here’s a little known fact: when she started her career teaching at the University of Arkansas law school, Hillary Clinton earned more than her husband. Suzanne Goldenberg, who wrote about their marriage, excavated her pay slips. Hillary’s pay records for the 1974-1975 academic year show a starting salary of $16,450 – slightly more than her husband’s, who was on $16,182 in his second year at the law school, and she would continue to outpace him on pay for her short time there.
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Meta fashion meets politics
Katy Perry sings for her. Beyonce is #withher. Madonna gave a surprise concert for her. Rihanna? Well, she’s kept quiet, choosing to show her support sartorially instead. Here she is today, wearing a t-shirt featuring a photo of herself... wearing a t-shirt featuring a photo of a young Hillary Clinton.
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“Now that she has the vote, how shall she go about using it?” So asked the New York Times on January 3, 1918, two months after the state gave women the right to vote. Hilarity ensued:
First time voters: ‘the US had better catch up with the rest of the world’
Guardian writer Rose Hackman hit the streets of New York with one mission: talk to first time women voters. She reports:
Poorvi Bellur, 19, proudly sported an “I voted” sticker. The student appeared thrilled to have cast her first ever US presidential election vote. “Voting for the first time feels liberating. It feels good to be engaged, part of something bigger.”
Bellur, who is studying history, says she wasn’t originally a Hillary Clinton supporter, but she is cautiously happy to now be on board. “I think she’s qualified, rational and ready for the job.”
The fact that she is a woman seems important, but not that groundbreaking for Bellur. The young American lived in India for a while — where she points out the first female head of state was elected decades ago. “The US had better catch up with the rest of the world!” she jokes.
“Honestly, I think we could always do with more female role models in politics, even if I’m not personally a big fan of Clinton’s foreign policy moves so far, and plan to hold her accountable.”
Ultimately, the biggest reason Bellur is hoping for a Clinton win is she believes the female presidential hopeful “stands for a culture of openness, of tolerance.”
Kayla Glaser, a 19-year-old student in New York, was beaming as she recounted the feelings associated with not only being able to vote in her first presidential elections, but also being able to vote for what she hopes will be the first female president.
“It was a cool feeling,” she said. Glaser says she has talked about the momentousness of this moment with her mother and female members of her family, as well as with her classmates at the all-female Barnard College.
Looking ahead to what she hopes will be a career in STEM – science, technology, engineering and mathematics – Glaser thinks reaching professional goals in these traditionally male fields would be easier with a woman in the White House.
“Her policies would help me as a woman,” she said.
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Reminder: not all women are #WithHer
Before Hillary Clinton boasted the support of a majority of women voters, she spent months struggling to capture their passion. The Guardian US talked to dozens of women during the primaries who felt ambivalent about Clinton to downright opposed.
Ranging from a juice bar packed with Clinton fans meeting Steinem to the living room of an Occupy Wall Street activist working for Sanders, the in-depth conversations were declarative (“I’m not voting with my uterus”) and defiant (“this is her time”) but very much in discord (“I want to see a female president before I die”).
Read on:
And read more about Clinton’s efforts to court lukewarm young women.
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Grace Bell Hardison, a 100-year-old woman recently mentioned by President Barack Obama after attempts were made to purge her from the voter registration list and hence deny her right to vote, affirms her identity to election official Elaine Hudnell by swearing on a bible as she prepares to vote from a car in Belhaven, North Carolina, US.
The New Yorker reports:
Obama mentioned a hundred-year-old woman from Belhaven, North Carolina, named Grace Bell Hardison, who had lived in the same house and voted regularly for decades, who found herself removed from the voting rolls because a letter sent to her was once marked “undeliverable.”
“It was not that long ago that folks had to guess the number of jellybeans in a jar, or bubbles on a bar of soap, or recite the Constitution in Chinese, in order to vote,” Obama said. “It wasn’t that long ago when folks were beaten trying to register voters in Mississippi.”
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‘It was incredible. A little emotional. I’m super proud’
Guardian reporter Amber Jamieson is on the ground in New York – where Hillary Clinton is expected to win with a large margin – talking to voters at the polls this afternoon. She reports:
Women in Chelsea found themselves feeling more feelings than expected while voting for a woman president.
“It was incredible. A little emotional. I’m super proud to be voting for the first possible female president,” said Carol Han, a 36-year-old owner of a digital agency and Manhattan resident from Chelsea.
Voting for Clinton at the Andrew Heiskell Library on 20th St in Manhattan, she thought of “how far we’ve really come, it wasn’t that long ago women couldn’t vote”.
Helga Kopperl, an artist who declined to give her age, said she was “elated” to vote for a female president. “Thank god. I did something for my own,” she told The Guardian.
“I didn’t expect to feel so emotional,” said Kopperl, noting that she was very careful to fill out her ballot paper correctly as she wanted to make sure her vote for a female president counted. “I wanted my ovals to fit, I wanted to do it right,” she said.
Kopperl also said she was just glad to have Clinton as a candidate. “She’s proven to me that she’s worked really hard,” said Kopperl.
For Elena Savostianova, a 38-year-old who works in finance, Clinton being female was just “an added bonus.”
“It’s exciting, I hope she wins by a lot,” she said, noting how frustrating the campaign had been and how she’d banned her daughter from watching the last debate as she “knew it was going to be nasty.”
Her daughter, Sasha Martire, aged 9, accompanied her mom to the ballot box.
“I know in history men thought women couldn’t be president and excluded them from deals. And now’s the chance to prove women are capable,” said the fourth grader.
Over in Brooklyn, Samarty Davis, an African-American woman in her 80s, was equally happy with her vote.
“First woman, we need it,” she said, just after voting at PS 256 in Bedford-Stuyvesant. “I really like her, she’s no pushover,” Davis, who added that she’s been a fan of Clinton since she was First Lady. “At first I thought: men made this mess, let them clean it up,” said Davis, before saying that she chose Clinton to ensure the best choice for her great grandchildren.
“I think it’s time for a woman to step in cause men are killing each other like animals,” she said.
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Will someone think about the groundskeeper?
Can't stop thinking about the guy who's going to spend hours scraping adhesive off Susan B. Anthony's gravestone
— Web Goof (@i_zzzzzz) November 8, 2016
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Spotted in Arizona: Cindy McCain, wife of Republican Senator John McCain, sporting a white pantsuit to go vote.
Cindy McCain wearing a white pantsuit to vote today https://t.co/bYShaUTKtF pic.twitter.com/Xg5BboC1CA
— Ryan Teague Beckwith (@ryanbeckwith) November 8, 2016
Is Cindy wearing the unofficial color of suffragettes – and the unofficial uniform of Hillary Clinton – on purpose? Or is she going country club casual like it’s any old Tuesday?
What would it take to break the Javits Center's glass ceiling?
Tonight, in a rather symbolic move, Hillary Clinton will be holding her election night party at the Javits Center in New York City, where she’ll make her speech from beneath its famous glass ceiling.
So what would it actually take to make a crack in it? We did some research and spoke to Nancy Czesak, the co-director on the Javits renovation project, to find out more about this iconic venue.
- Over 6,000 glass panels make up the glass ceiling: 3,722 for the curtain wall and 2,400 for skylights
- There were about 100 people involved in the installation
- Each glass panel weighs about 500lbs
- Though Czesak emphasized that the glass isn’t intended to break, it was engineered to withstand an impact of a 9lb object traveling 100 mph.
- Height of glass structure: 15 stories
- Czesak, who led the project, said it was uncommon at the time to have a woman lead such a construction project
- Fun fact: the new glass panels are imprinted with a dot pattern to prevent bird crashes
- Earlier this year, New York governorAndrew Cuomo announced a $1bn expansion project for the Javits
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A good contender for “best dressed in white” in front of a polling station in Dallas, Texas.
#DedicateYourVoteToAWoman
In another sign as to the significance of this election to women, many are using the hashtag #DedicateYourVoteToAWoman to talk about the influential women in their lives who motivated them to vote. Similarly, WNYC radio host Brian Lehrer asked Twitter users to share who inspired them to vote using #DedicateTheVote.
For my grandmother, who was born in a town she couldn't vote in and never did until her move up north. #dedicateyourvotetoawoman pic.twitter.com/XxFziyfQOr
— insomniacs anonymous (@mcgarrygirl78) November 8, 2016
"I #DedicateTheVote to all the suffragettes who worked hard to make sure we got a vote." pic.twitter.com/iqNjbJa7HY
— WNYC (@WNYC) November 8, 2016
My vote is 4 my Gma's. 1 born b4 suffrage who wouldve been so excited for a 🚺 prez & 1 who voted for Hillary at 89 #DedicateYourVoteToAWoman pic.twitter.com/uk7z5e1Btd
— Nice Nice Good Good (@bea_bischoff) November 8, 2016
My vote is for my late grandmother, Shirley Chisholm, Ida B. Wells, and Zora Neale Hurston. My patron saints. #DedicateYourVoteToAWoman
— Ashley C. Ford (@iSmashFizzle) November 8, 2016
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Surprise, surprise: the staff of Jezebel has revealed who they’re voting for (and you’ll never guess the result).
(Slightly more diverse results on the staff of Slate, if you’re interested).
Another suffragette appreciation post from (Guardian writer) S E Smith:
Don't forget badass disabled suffragettes like Helen Keller & Rosa May Billinghurst. Billinghurst used her wheelchair as battering ram, FYI.
— s.e. smith (@realsesmith) November 8, 2016
A little more about Billinghurst here, courtesy of historian Sheila Hanlon:
She organised events and meetings, took part in demonstrations, was a regular in processions, and served as secretary of the Greenwich branch. Without the use of her legs, she relied on an invalid tricycle for the mobility she needed to be a full participant in the suffrage action. Her invalid tricycle was, for the time, a high tech wheelchair modeled on a tricycle and propelled by hand controls.
Billinghurst was a regular participant in the WSPU’s public processions. She attracted public attention by appearing dressed in white and wheeling along with her machine decked out in coloured WSPU ribbons and “Votes for Women” banners. Billinghurst rose to prominence as a recognizable public figure and became known as “the cripple suffragette.”
Ivanka for president?
Hillary Clinton may or may not become the first female president of the United States, but others are already eyeing 2020 and beyond. Katrina Jorgensen writes about why she could be convinced to vote for the other Trump – Ivanka.
Ivanka in particular has all her father’s “pros” and almost none of his incredibly off-putting cons. She has balanced motherhood with owning her own company. She has been successful in practically every area of business, including her work as an author, all while keeping a certain amount of traditional femininity that Republicans still praise. She came into the political spotlight as an outsider but has proven she has plenty of acumen on the campaign trail, at the same level or even beyond that of her father. She has access to the Trump family’s self-funding resources. She would even have Donald Trump himself at her disposal as a fiercely loyal supporter unafraid to speak his mind on camera.
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When you’ve always been told that a woman can’t be president...
We’re seeing many folks who voted for Clinton say they want their daughters to understand that they can be anything – even president. Throughout this election, lots of women have recalled a time when they thought being president was a man’s job. We’ve pasted a few of them below. One of our favorites: “In 3rd grade a boy told me a woman can’t be president because she would turn all the Walgreens into nail salons”.
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Over in our opinion section, contributors weigh in on today’s vote.
Novelist Barbara Kingslover remembers the first time she had a fight with her own father about whether a woman could ever be president – she was 11:
My father was a country physician, admired and rewarded for work he loved. In my primordial search for a life coach, he was the natural choice.
I probably started by asking him if girls could go to college, have jobs, be doctors, tentatively working my way up the ladder. His answers grew more equivocal until finally we faced off, Dad saying, “No” and me saying, “But why not?” A female president would be dangerous. His reasons vaguely referenced menstruation and emotional instability, innate female attraction to maternity and aversion to power, and a general implied ickyness that was beneath polite conversation.
I ended that evening curled in bed with my fingernails digging into my palms and a silent howl tearing through me that lasted hours and left me numb. The next day I saw life at a remove, as if my skull had been jarred. What changed for me was not a dashing of specific hopes, but an understanding of what my father – the person whose respect I craved – really saw when he looked at me. I was tainted. I would grow up to be a lesser person, confined to an obliquely shameful life.
In the comments, rustyschwinn points out that Nancy Pelosi, the only woman to have served as the House Speaker and the highest-ranking female politician in American history (so far), deserves some recognition today. “A pretty thick glass ceiling to break through” is right, rusty.
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Some women are wearing white, and others are wearing pantsuits to the polls. Jerry Emmett, a 102 year old woman from Arizona, wore both - in style:
AP reports: Emmett remembers seeing her mother go to vote for the first time after the 19th amendment guaranteeing women the right to vote was ratified in August 1920. The retired educator says she’s been waiting her whole life to cast her ballot for a woman and has been eager to vote for Clinton, who would be the nation’s first female president.
As the oldest delegate in Arizona, Emmett helped cast a ballot to nominate Hillary Clinton for president at the DNC convention:
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Guardian reporter Rory Caroll is interviewing voters in Arizona – and talked to a family where the Trump/Clinton divide is intergenerational.
Latina Mom voting Clinton, daughter Trump. 'Between a liar and take our chance I figure take a chance.' pic.twitter.com/zuLKr7zVSN
— Rory Carroll (@rorycarroll72) November 8, 2016
'You can’t throw away an opportunity to be listened to' Esther Diamond, born before women had the right to vote
Esther Diamond doesn’t like people who don’t vote. “Voting is a privilege,” she reminds me, as we sit in her apartment in Queens, New York. “People have died for it. You can’t throw away an opportunity to be listened to.”
Diamond knows what that feels like. She was born in January 1920, months before the final state ratified the 19th Amendment, which granted women the right to vote. Now, the 96-year-old, who immigrated to America from Russia as a child, is looking forward to voting for a woman herself. “I’ve hoped for a long time that this day would come,” she says.
Diamond is just one of many women born before the 19th Amendment profiled on the website iwaited96years.com: different women from different backgrounds sharing the same excitement about this historic moment. In a lifetime they’ve gone from being disenfranchised because of their sex to casting a vote for, potentially, the first female President of the United States.
There’s Eugenia Perkins, 102, in North Carolina: “It is about time there was a woman President!”
There’s Lung Hsin Wu, 98, in Oregon, by way of Beijing: “My vote means another step towards equity for women!”
And there’s Diamond, who says: “Since as long as I can remember…I don’t want to be better than men. I want to be equal to them. You’re a second-class citizen if you’re not.”
Women’s rights have progressed a lot in Diamond’s lifetime, but there’s still a way to go. “When you hear the difference in salaries between men and woman for the same job and the men get more than you do…” she shakes her head. “Maybe Hillary can help.”
Diamond has been doing as much campaigning as she can for Clinton. When her assisted living facility had early voting a couple of weeks ago she got a placard of Hillary made up “sat 50 feet away from the voting booth” doing last minute electioneering.
Diamond thinks the final result will be close. But whether Clinton wins or not, “she’s opened the door for future women to think about running and that’s important. I’m sure there will be others, maybe not in my lifetime. You just need one person to try the water. Maybe my great granddaughter will be President.”
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In another move to honor suffragettes today, some women are wearing white as they head to the polls, and posting their photos with the hashtag #WearWhite and #WearWhiteToVote.
White is one of the official colors of the women’s movement, and suffragettes were encouraged to attend marches wearing it in the early 1900s. In what was widely seen as a nod to it, Clinton herself wore white while accepting the Democratic Nomination.
Not everyone is as keen to celebrate this legacy. Some women argue that wearing white today is a choice rooted in racism (for more on this topic, The Toast also published an arresting collection of racist quotes by suffragettes).
The remarkable and sometime uncomfortable history of the suffragette movement is one worth delving into if you have time. This piece by Mone Fields-White explores the relationship between the suffragette movement and racism in America:
Throughout much of the 1800s, the women’s alcohol temperance movement was a powerful force in the greater push toward women’s suffrage. Meanwhile, many suffrage leaders — such as Susan B. Anthony and Elizabeth Cady Stanton — had also championed black equality. Yet in 1870, the suffragists found themselves on opposing ends of the equal-rights battle when Congress passed the 15th Amendment, enabling black men to vote (at least, in theory) — and not women. That measure engendered resentment among some white suffragists, especially in the South.
Hillary Clinton may be the most popular candidate among women, but not all of them are supportive of her. Guardian reporter Paul Lewis talked to women in Nevada – a swing state – who were, at best, ambivalent about her track record and her candidacy.
At a luncheon held by Republican women, one interviewee said: “I would never vote for a woman like that just because she would be the first woman president”. Others were more torn, however. One said: “I’ll vote straight Republican. But I don’t have to like it at all”.
Watch the video for more.
Meanwhile, in New Jersey, a giant 16x46 foot crochet work was unveiled over a highway – right outside the Holland tunnel. The piece was crafted by Polish-American artist Olek and 38 volunteers. The New Yorker reports:
A lot of artists had at one point been doing pro-Bernie art, and a lot since were doing anti-Trump art, but there simply had not been much pro-Hillary art,” [Olek] said. At first, the notion of making an overtly political piece did not sit well with her. But with one month to go, she changed her mind. “I couldn’t turn my back,” she told me. “There was too much at stake.”
No matter which side of the political fence you’re sitting, there is something oddly satisfying in watching the work being unrolled:
After casting their vote on election day, hundreds of women waited in line to affix their “I Voted” stickers to the gravestone of famous suffragette Susan B Anthony in Rochester, New York.
According to a live video by local news station WROC, Anthony’s headstone was almost completely covered in stickers by 12pm. Only her name could be seen as visitors posed for photos at the grave.
Anthony, who died 14 years before the 19th amendment was ratified, was a prominent force in the movement to get women the right to vote and was once arrested and fined for voting illegally.
The pilgrimage to Anthony’s grave is an election day tradition. The Mayor of Rochester, Lovely Warren, told the Associated Press that the visit to the gravesite was a “rite of passage” and that it was appropriate to keep the cemetery open later as Hillary Clinton was the first female presidential nominee of a major political party.
As The New York Times reported, a similar tribute has formed for prominent suffragists Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Carrie Chapman Catt, Mary Garrett Hay and Alva Vanderbilt Belmont at Woodlawn Cemetery in the Bronx.
Susan B. Anthony's grave gets all the "I Voted" stickers. At Woodlawn Cemetery in the Bronx, Elizabeth Cady Stanton's grave is a bit lonely. pic.twitter.com/1L28WCQJwj
— Katie Rogers (@katierogers) November 7, 2016
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Welcome to The Glass Ceiling Watch blog
Today marks the first time in the 240 year history of the United States that voters will have the power to elect a woman as their president. When voters make their choice, they will also close out an election in which women have been at the center of almost every conversation.
Hillary Clinton’s candidacy and the unprecedented election in which she has competed have inspired almost every reaction on the spectrum: jubilation, relief, apathy, disdain, misogyny, and outrage. Today on this blog, we’re going to capture a slice of how American women are reacting as Clinton attempts to make history.
And we want you to join in.
Whether you’re an octogenarian who’s waited her whole life to cast this vote, or someone who doesn’t really see what the big deal is, we want to hear from you. Tweet us @GuardianUS and let us know what it means to you that America might elect its first female president today. And if you want more coverage, follow our main election live blog here.
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I think Nancy Pelosi deserves at least a nod here.
The most powerful elected politician in government (next to the President or more so than the President in some estimations) as Speaker of the House, and the first (and only) woman to hold that office. During which she was, as speakers are, 2nd in line in the Presidential succession.
That was a pretty thick glass ceiling to break through in its own right.
Overall this makes her the highest ranked woman in US politics ever - until tomorrow?