Clinton Chips at the Glass Ceiling in Primary Victories

March 5, 2008 — -- Female baby boomers across the country have pinned decades of hope on Sen. Hillary Clinton's presidential candidacy, and last night their voices roared as she scored her first primary victories after 12 straight losses, with pivotal wins in Texas and Ohio.

But Clinton still trails in the delegate count and faces a tough struggle to gain the Democratic nomination. It's not unlike the struggle many old-school feminists have faced this year in weighing the role of gender in the voting booth.

Nancy Pierce, a 56-year-old school principal, says she's waited her whole life for a woman president. As the 2008 primary season dawned she looked forward to casting a historic vote.

As a feminist she was drawn to Clinton, but like Caroline Kennedy, Pierce was swayed by her children's passion for the youth and energy of Sen. Barack Obama.

She convinced herself to keep an open mind.

When a passionate young canvasser trudged through the snow to Pierce's rural New Hampshire doorstep in January, urging her to vote for Obama, Pierce was impressed.

"We live on a country road with three houses in five miles and she arrived on foot," said Pierce, who is director of the Contoocook School. "Her emotion was so powerful that when she left, I cried."

After a lifetime of fighting for women's causes, Pierce decided to follow her children's lead and back the charismatic Illinois senator. She even put an Obama sticker on her car.

But when Clinton slipped in the polls and had her teary moment in New Hampshire, Pierce wavered. "Hillary was stripped down to a real person, and I didn't know what I would do when I stepped into the voting booth."

No one was more surprised than Pierce when she voted for Clinton instead of Obama.

"It's almost as if I wanted to reach out to the next generation, but what about my own commitment over the years?" Pierce told ABCNEWS.com. "As mothers, we want something for our children, but I wanted this for myself."

The last-minute decison change typified this year's Democratic race. In Tuesday's primaries, Clinton won over voters who made up their minds in the final few days by 18 points in Ohio and 23 in Texas.

In addition to the late deciders, Latinos, working-class voters and women helped Clinton push back against Obama's recent winning streak.

With months to go before the Democratic convention, Clinton has chipped away at the glass ceiling and inspired many women who were trailblazers in the early years of the women's movement. But many of their daughters, who have arguably been the beneficiaries of the old-school feminists' hard-earned progress, say gender is irrelevant — at least when it comes to voting.

Clinton does better than Obama among older women voters by about 2-1, according to ABC polls. An estimated 61 percent of women over 65 support her campaign. But in the under-30 age group, 53 percent of women prefer Obama.

In a historic political year when barriers of gender and race are being broken, women are still trying to figure out what the Clinton candidacy means to their own identity and the state of the feminist movement.

Women Lag Men in Politics, Industry

The National Organization for Women reports that women's participation in both government and industry still lags far behind their male counterparts. Only 16 percent of the members of Congress and 18 percent of U.S. governors are women. Only 16 percent of Fortune 500 CEOs are women, and women earn only 77 cents for every dollar earned by men.

"It's heartbreaking that it has taken so much time after Geraldine Ferraro to get back to a place where the public is willing to accept a woman," Pierce said.

Ferraro, now 72 and a New York City businesswoman, was hailed as a trailblazer for women when she became Walter Mondale's vice presidential running mate on the 1984 Democratic ticket.

Ferraro told ABCNEWS.com that sitting president Ronald Reagan's supporters "tried to destroy" the Democratic ticket by investigating her family's finances and personal life.

And sometimes women are the worst offenders, Ferraro said. Barbara Bush, wife of then-Vice President George H.W. Bush, publicly referred to Ferraro as something that "rhymes with rich."

"I was only in it for four months," Ferraro said. "I didn't do the campaign travel or participate in 20 debates or have to raise money. I was really an unknown element, and I said more than once that if, indeed, my name were Gerard, I would never have gotten [the flak]."

Clinton is "absolutely a trailblazer," she said. "Does anybody doubt for one minute that a woman can raise money or debate? No one has once questioned her experience or doing the job of president."

Sexism in the Press

Even with last night's wins, the Clinton campaign still faces challenges. Ferraro said reporters have been harder on Clinton than they were on her in 1984, and some coverage has been "vicious."

"The sexism in the press is driving me crazy," said Ferraro.

Ferraro, along with others, such as former Colorado Rep. Pat Schroeder, fought hard for anti-discrimination bills in Congress. But she believes that too often younger women forget their contribution.

During a recent National Public Radio interview, a female caller told Ferraro, "I am sick and tired of raising the gender card."

"That's the problem for a lot of women out there," Ferraro said. "We were forced to remove the barriers. We do well, and they actually resent people like Hillary and me."

Women Can Be Worst Critics

Clinton's presidential candidacy presents an interesting test case not only because of her gender, but because she entered the contest with widespread name recognition and a well-defined public image. That image, colored through the years by things as superficial as her shifting hairstyles and as personal as her marital woes, might make the odds against her eventual victory even steeper.

Often Clinton's biggest critics are other women, especially when it comes to what New York Times columnist Susan Dominus calls the "messy back story" of Bill Clinton's affair with Monica Lewinsky.

"I have had women say to me they would never support her because she didn't leave Bill, which leaves me shaking my head," said NOW President Kim Gandy. "How can you look at Chelsea and not think she did the right thing keeping her family together?"

"It was her decision, and none of us was in her shoes," Gandy said. "Can you imagine anyone saying, upon learning that Cindy McCain had strayed, 'I am not voting for John McCain because he stayed with her?'"

And not all of Clinton's resistance comes from younger women.

Cheryl Ross, 57, of Great Neck, N.Y., said she supports Obama because of his grass-roots approach to politics and his appeal to youth. Ross faults Clinton for the "fiasco" of her health care initiative during President Clinton's first term in office.

"She keeps citing her years of experience, but I don't count her years in the White House," said Ross. "I have experience in my husband's doctor's office, but you don't want me taking care of your patients!"

Not All Older Women Swayed by Gender

Karyn Conner, a 61-year-old human relations specialist at Genentech outside San Francisco, acknowledged the significance of a Clinton candidacy but argued that neither gender nor race should matter.

"I don't care if they are peppermint-striped," said Conner, who voted for Obama in the California primary. "If they can do the job, I vote for them.

"I didn't like her from the get-go, nor did I trust her," said Conner, who voted for President Bill Clinton twice. "Her early comments on baking chocolate chip cookies were demeaning to women who stayed at home. I also don't think she would do us any favors in the Middle East. She's too pushy, and I think you need someone who is more diplomatic."

Conner's comments reflect some of the criticism lobbed at Clinton. She has been charged with whining like a woman, but being too aggressive and ambitious like a man.

That, say some old-school feminists, is an example of the double standard being thrown at Clinton.

Does Race Trump Gender?

Feminist Robin Morgan, a co-founder of the Women's Media Center, recently blogged, "When a sexist idiot screamed 'Iron my shirt!' at Hillary Clinton, it was considered amusing; if a racist idiot shouted, 'Shine my shoes!' at Barack Obama, it would've inspired hours of airtime and pages of newsprint analyzing our national dishonor."

Latino voters in Texas largely went for Clinton last night. But not Mary Mendoza.

"I really struggled with who to vote for," said the 24-year-old. "Hillary's the first woman in history to get this far. I'm really glad I am alive to see this happen."

Mendoza said she is proud that a woman is running for president but not enough to cast a ballot for Clinton

"He's younger and innovative," said Mendoza, who voted absentee for Obama from Vermont, where she teaches English to migrant workers.

"Being Latino didn't have any bearing for me," she said. "Gender doesn't really matter, either. Like a lot of women my age, I don't feel limited by men."

Race and Ethnicity Important

Still, Mendoza said, Clinton is white, and many young people are more sensitive to issues of race and ethnicity.

"An African-American candidacy is also making history, and I feel really lucky to be alive to witness doors opening," Mendoza said. "Americans have come a really long way."

Kimberly Nelson, a 23-year-old African-American, said she is a little perplexed by the swell of support for Obama. She believes race and gender are less important than the actual qualifications of a candidate. "For some reason I can't connect to him," she said of Obama.

"I see a repeat of what happened in 2000," said Nelson, a New York insurance agent. "People were so fed up they went to the extremes and voted for Bush on the abortion issue. Look at the situation we are in now [in Iraq]. It has nothing to do with abortion."

She thinks voters look to Obama for change on social issues and presents a "black candidate who is eloquent," shattering the tired stereotypes of "men in prison."

But sex and race shouldn't be factors, said Nelson. "Just because Obama is black doesn't make him a better candidate, and being a woman doesn't make Hillary a better president," she said.

Also, as a young woman, Nelson said said she hadn't felt the sting of sexism. "Women feel competent in their abilities now."

For Nelson and other young female voters, the Clinton candidacy wasn't necessarily a referendum on women's rights. The Public Interest Research Group notes that gender does not play a significant role among young women.

"When we talk to young people on college campuses, they tell us they are voting because it is a historic election and there are huge issues at play and no clear king crowned," said Sujatha Jahagirdar, program director of PIRG's New Voter Project. "Their vote really matters."

But NOW says the political life is still tougher on women.

"There is no question women are examined more closely in politics than men, perhaps because of the expectation that they will be more perfect," said NOW's Gandy.

"They look at women CEOs and say, 'If a male doesn't do well, nobody ever says, 'We'll never have another male heading the company,'" she said. "But if a female doesn't do well, they brush their hands and say, 'We tried women and that doesn't work'"

Despite the inroads made in 2008, Gandy wonders how many other women "with a record as long and deep" as Clinton's will be on the horizon if she cannot carry the victories forward.

"For decades, women have had to be extraordinary because the hopes and aspirations of an entire gender are riding how well they do," she said. "Without a doubt Hillary has blazed a trail because she has come further than any woman in U.S. history. In some ways that is a tribute to the success of the women's rights movement."