She talked about reasonably priced healthcare. Reproductive rights. The economic system. The Middle East. Immigration. Project 2025. The rebellion. She informed tales about her upbringing in Oakland, California, and talked at size about her particular bond together with her late mom, Shyamala Harris.
But one factor she never mentioned? Breaking the “glass ceiling” to develop into the primary lady president of the United States.
It wasn’t simply that Harris didn’t embrace this oft-repeated metaphor in her speech. She didn’t point out the potential historic significance of her win in any respect. And whereas she spoke at size about ladies’s points in her tackle, most at size about reproductive justice, she solely talked about the phrase “lady” as soon as, when describing her mom as “a superb, five-foot-tall brown lady with an accent.”
When formally accepting the nomination, she as a substitute forged her candidacy as an indication of what all folks—of any race, shade, creed, or gender—might obtain.
“On behalf of everybody whose story might solely be written within the best nation on Earth, I settle for your nomination to be president of the United States of America,” she stated, to thunderous applause.
This selection, which we will assume to be intentional, is a marked distinction from the final and solely different lady to be the presidential nominee for a significant political celebration: Hillary Clinton. In Clinton’s 2016 marketing campaign, she made breaking the glass ceiling a central piece of images, even, memorably, planning her election evening rally at New York City’s Javits Center as a result of it has, you guessed it, a glass ceiling. That glass ceiling was one which Clinton didn’t find yourself breaking when she misplaced the election to Donald Trump.
“I do know we’ve got nonetheless not shattered that highest and hardest glass ceiling — however sometime somebody will and hopefully ahead of we’d assume proper now,” she stated in her concession speech.
The distinction between the 2 ladies’s method is much more marked when analyzing Clinton’s tackle accepting her nomination in August 2016. Although the previous senator herself didn’t use the precise phrase in her speech, she started by emphasizing the truth that she was the primary lady to be in her place, and stated she was the conclusion of a dream of generations of ladies earlier than her.
“Tonight, we’ve reached a milestone in our nation’s march towards a extra excellent union: the primary time {that a} main celebration has nominated a lady for president,” she said. “Standing right here as my mom’s daughter, and my daughter’s mom, I’m so joyful this present day has come. Happy for grandmothers and little ladies and everybody in between. Happy for boys and males, too—as a result of when any barrier falls in America, for anybody, it clears the way in which for everybody. When there are not any ceilings, the sky’s the restrict.”
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