Hillary Clinton says it’s time Kamala Harris broke ‘glass ceiling’

During her run for president in 2016, Mrs Clinton fell victim to many of these same obstacles. She faced a barrage of criticisms over her appearance, her clothing and even the sound of her voice.

She came into the race with more “baggage” than the average candidate, said Deloris Hudson, an Ohio delegate to the DNC.

Voters judged Mrs Clinton not only based on her own credentials and record as secretary of state but also on her relationship with her husband, former President Bill Clinton, Ms Hudson said.

Ms Hudson said many women judged Mrs Clinton for staying with her husband after he had an affair with Monica Lewinsky, an intern in the White House.

“A lot of women felt, once the affair occurred: ‘Was she as strong a woman as she could’ve been because she stayed by her man?’” Ms Hudson said.

But ultimately, it was Mrs Clinton’s loss to Trump in 2016 that sparked women’s marches across the country and propelled a record number of female candidates to run for office in 2018. Now, 28.5% of the House of Representatives is female, compared to just 19.1% in 2017, according to the Pew Research Center.

Meanwhile, over the past decade, the percentage of Americans who believed men were better suited for politics than women fell continuously, according to data from the University of Chicago’s National Opinion Research Center.

Several elections later, Ms Harris does not face the same pressure as Mrs Clinton to be “everything to every woman”, Ms McMorrow said.

“Since then, we’ve seen more women running and winning at every single level all the way up that allows us more freedom and flexibility to be ourselves,” she said.