CHUCK TODD (HOST): Hillary Clinton, of course is going to be making history as the first woman to clinch a major political party nomination here in the United States. By our count, just 84 women have held the title of president or prime minister positions around the globe. The first ever woman elected president anywhere was in Iceland in 1980. Take a look at history of women in U.S. Politics. The first state to grant women voting rights was Wyoming in 1869 and they remained the only state to do so for nearly three decades. By 1916 women could vote in 11 states. Jeannette Rankin of Montana became the first woman elected to the House of Representatives. She was a progressive who dedicated herself to women’s suffrage. After a struggle, led by leaders of the National Woman Suffrage Association like Rankin, Susan B Anthony, and Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Congress approved the 19th Amendment and in 1920 voting rights were extended to women nationally. Two years later Rebecca Latimer Felton became the first woman in the United States Senate, serving for just 24 hours filling a vacancy by their predecessor’s death. Wyoming and Texas each elected the first women to serve as governors. They did so in the same day in 1924. Hattie Caraway of Arkansas became the first woman elected to the U.S. Senate in 1934. Of course Shirley Chisholm became the first major party woman candidate when announcing she’d seek the Democratic nomination for president in 1972. And then, in 2008, of course, Hillary Clinton came very close delivering this now famous concession speech exactly eight years ago today.
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Tell me your feelings today and what it means to you to see the Democratic Party nominee be the party that nominates the first woman nominee in the United States.
PATRICIA SCHROEDER: I am very excited. You know, when Gerry Ferraro was on the ticket, I thought all of the tickets would be better ballots from that day forward, and was I ever wrong. But, you know, the White House has kind of been the ultimate tree house in America with the giant “no girls allowed” on it. This is as close as we've gotten to be able to take that sign down. Hillary is so well qualified and I am very, very excited today to see this happen.
TODD: Doris, it took being the spouse of a former president to break this glass ceiling, or should it have been broken without it?
DORIS KEARNS-GOODWIN: It's incredible to realize that after 200 years of the republic, 100 years of people being able to vote who are women that it's taken this long for this to happen. And I think the problem is just been that women haven't been in that upper echelon of leadership positions as governors, mayor, senators, et cetera. And you’re right, what it took is the spouse of a president and then a person who became senator and then a person who became secretary of state and then a person who had as many qualifications as many men. But it is an historic moment when you think of how long, when other countries have had so many women there before us, and we’re supposed to be the beacon of hope to the world at large. It’s about time that this has happened.
