BECOMING A PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE Every four years Americans vote for their next president Only one candidate from each major party runs in the November election Others may run as independent candidates During the first half of the year states hold primary elections and caucuses At these events people vote for their favorite candidates within each party Delegates are chosen to go to national conventions The delegates vote to decide each party’s official nominee there At the time only white men could vote After that first meeting activists kept fighting for equal rights Finally the 19th Amendment to the Constitution was passed by Congress on June 4 1919 and ratified on August 18 1920 It gave women the right to vote Clinton said she would work to make a better world for everyone She urged the crowd to work with her She gave her mother credit for inspiring her to serve others Suffragettes who had worked to get voting rights for women celebrated the passing of the 19th Amendment 6
WOMEN IN CONGRESS This graph shows the percentage of women in Congress in 1965 along with the same figures in 2017 How has the makeup of Congress changed Why do you think it has changed House of Representatives Senate 21 19 Percentage of Members of Congress Who Are Women 2 2 1965 2017 Year
BREAKING THE GLASS CEILING The next month at the Democratic Party’s national convention in Philadelphia Pennsylvania delegates cast their votes Clinton’s status as the Democratic Party nominee became official On a huge screen a video showed the faces of all of the US presidents Next the picture shattered into pieces Clinton’s image appeared The crowd cheered The video celebrated the idea of Clinton breaking the glass ceiling in politics Clinton has long worked to improve the lives of people in need She has been a law professor and an attorney She was the First Lady of Arkansas Later she would become First Lady of the United States and WHAT IS THE GLASS CEILING The glass ceiling is an invisible barrier that keeps women from succeeding as leaders and professionals The term was first used in 1986 The Wall Street Journal reported that only 10 percent of senior executives were women When a woman becomes a leader or manager it’s called breaking the glass ceiling It means she has broken through this barrier in her career 9
