By Jennifer McShane
07th Jun 2016
07th Jun 2016
Hillary Rodham Clinton may divide public opinion of US voters, but one thing that is certain is that in the last 24 hours, she shattered the “highest, hardest glass ceiling there is.”Almost?eight years after she’suspended her campaign and threw her support behind then-senator Barack Obama, Clinton obtained the support of enough delegates and superdelegates to nab?the Democratic Presidential nomination -?2,383 on the eve of Tuesday’s voting, according to an Associated Press tally. This means she is on the verge of becoming the first woman ever to head the ticket for a major U.S. political party -?an incredible accomplishment.
But how much do we really know about this presumptive presidential frontrunner? For someone who has spent the bulk of her life in the public eye, you could argue, not a whole lot or at least, not the right perception according to this enigmatic figure. “Well, as someone close to me once said, ‘I’m probably the most famous person you don’t really know,'” Clinton told NBC in 2007. On the wake of her historic nomination, here are five things you may not know about the potential future president of the United Sates of America.
She broke boundaries?from an early age?
In 1969, she became the first student (ever) to deliver a commencement address at Wellesley College in the US.?The women’s college didn’t have a tradition of student commencement speakers. But by the time the class of 1969 was nearing graduation, an activist-minded student body demanded to have a student speaker to represent it at the ceremony. After her speech was printed in LIFE magazine that same year, she had already started to become somewhat of an icon.
She suffered her share of career setbacks
At the ages of 13 and 27, then-Hillary Rodham applied for and was rejected for two roles. At 13, she wrote NASA requesting to be accepted into its astronaut program. She was rejected due to her gender. At 27, she tried to join the Marines but was allegedly turned away for being a woman, having poor vision and being “too old.”
Her commitment to women and girls goes way back
Talking about women’s issues may be the norm now, but Clinton has been working on these issues her whole life.?When Clinton was in high school, she volunteered with her church youth group to babysit the children of migrant labourers. From there, volunteered at Yale’s Child Study Center, learning about new research on early childhood brain development, as well as New Haven Hospital, where she took on cases of child abuse and the city Legal Services, providing free legal service to the poor. Upon graduation from law school, she served as staff attorney for the Children’s Defense Fund in Cambridge, Massachusetts. In Arkansas, she co-founded the group Arkansas Advocates for Children and Families. And all of this was before she became first lady and secretary of state, both platforms she used to advance women’s empowerment and the well-being of children worldwide.
She defines feminism in the most brilliant way
Lena Dunham rightfully featured Clinton in her Lenny Letter where she was proud to call herself a feminist. “I’m always a little bit puzzled when any woman, of whatever age but particularly a young woman, says something like, ?Well, I believe in equal rights, but I’m not a feminist.? Well, a feminist is by definition someone who believes in equal rights! I’m hoping that people will not be afraid to say – that doesn’t mean you hate men. It doesn’t mean that you want to separate out the world so that you’re not part of ordinary life. That’s not what it means at all! It just means that we believe women have the same rights as men, politically, culturally, socially, economically. That’s what it means.”
She won a Grammy
She won a Grammy for ?Best Spoken Word Album? in 1996 for her children’s book ?It Takes A Village.?
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