xiii At the time of this encyclopedia’s publication, four years will have passed since Hillary Clinton’s historic run as the Democratic Party candidate in the presidential election of 2016. Her critics accused her of playing the “gender card” during her campaign as she embraced the historic potential of her can- didacy as well as a feminist vision in her platform. Clinton supporters declared “I’m with Her” on T-shirts and bumper stickers, emphasizing the gender of their chosen candidate. In 2007, the first time Hillary Clinton sought the Democratic nomination, 88 percent of Americans said they would vote for a female candidate for president, up from just 33 percent who said they would do so in 1937, the first time the Gallup Poll asked that question (Malone 2016). Beginning with Victoria Woodhull in 1872, many women have run in the presidential primaries, seeking the nomination not only from the two major parties but also as representatives of third parties (“Run like a Girl”). Both the Democratic and Republican Party tickets have each included one female vice-presidential candidate, although both tickets lost in the general elections (Geraldine Ferraro in 1984 as the running mate of Walter Mondale, and Sarah Palin in 2008 as John McCain’s running mate). Indeed, while the 2019–2020 primary election cycle again reached historic milestones, with five women appearing on the Democratic presidential debate stage (including one woman of color), women still hold significantly fewer positions in state and national public office. It was not until 1974, more than 50 years after American women achieved national suffrage, that Ella Grasso of Connecticut was elected as the nation’s first female governor in her own right, not as a proxy or replacement for a husband. Currently, in 2019, only 9 out of 50 states have a female governor. And, to date, there has never been a black female governor. Introduction
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