(Photo: Paul Morigi, WireImage)
When I was in the second grade, my class dressed up like the presidents and gave little speeches. It was a lot of fun, but what I remember most distinctly from Presidents’ Day was asking my mother why a woman had never been president. Looking back on what she told me, it was clear that she was trying to explain sexism to a second grader without making me feel like things couldn’t change.
July 28, 2016 marked a very important historical moment — when Hilary Clinton officially accepted the Democratic Party nomination for president. I don’t think I realized how important it was until I watched it happen.
As an Eccles School business student involved in management consulting and startups, I constantly find myself surrounded by men. Often, I’m the only woman in the room.
There is still a gender pay gap. There is still no guaranteed paid maternity leave. Women still only lead 4.4 percent of companies on the S&P 500.
While we now have the first female presidential candidate from a major political party, we still haven’t had a female president.
Having women in positions of leadership in business and in government matters. Female politicians prioritize issues that positively impact women more often than their male colleagues.
These are issues that impact my generation of female businesswomen. As we look towards the future, can more of us make it to the corner office, to the C-suite, than the women of our mothers’ generation?
Like my mother told me in second grade, things can change. Things are changing. Hilary’s nomination is an important part of that historical trajectory.