After two presidential losses, women wonder what it will take to shatter the glass ceiling

By Arit John, CNN

(CNN) — America did not elect Kamala Harris as its first female president this week, but Janet Edwards was grateful she got to witness a fellow Black woman run for the highest office in the land in her lifetime.

She didn’t want to let Harris’ loss on November 5 take away from the joy of the 107 days before it.

“I’m not going to step away from what’s possible in the future,” Edwards, a 53-year-old from Washington, DC, said during an interview before Harris’ concession speech at Howard University. “There will be some challenging times that may not lean in my direction, but that’s par for the course if you plan to live this life, particularly as a woman of color.”

Tuesday’s election has left Democrats reeling, but Harris’ loss comes with an added layer of disappointment for some women, particularly the women of color who backed her overwhelmingly. For the second time in eight years, the highest, hardest glass ceiling survived millions of tiny cracks, once again testing the optimism of those who hope to see the first female president elected.

Even as other countries – including Italy, North Macedonia and, most recently, Mexico – have in recent years joined the ranks of countries that have elected the first women to their highest political offices, American voters have picked Donald Trump twice over the two women who have come closest to the White House in US history.

Women have been running for president for more than 150 years, starting with Victoria Woodhull’s 1872 bid as a candidate of the Equal Rights Party. The late Rep. Shirley Chisholm, a former New York congresswoman, became the first Black woman to seek the office in 1972. Her slogan: “Unbought and Unbossed.” Harris’ previous presidential campaign paid homage to the typography of the Chisholm run.

But it’s only in the past 16 years that the office has truly seemed within reach for women. In 2008, after Hillary Clinton narrowly lost the Democratic party nomination to Barack Obama, she pointed to the 18 million votes she did receive during the primary season as progress that would ease the way for a woman to win the nomination someday. Eight years later, she did just that, but lost in the general, despite winning three million more votes than Trump.

Both of the women nominated by Democrats had weaknesses. Clinton was a longtime target of Republicans, unpopular with progressives in her party and spent much of her campaign weathering the political fallout of her use of a private email server as secretary of state.

Harris did not compete in a primary and attempted to condense two years of campaigning into just over three months after President Joe Biden ended his campaign and endorsed her in July. She tried to tack to the center and compete as a change candidate while serving in the administration of a president battling low approval numbers and poor perceptions of the economy.

But this second, more decisive loss – once again to Trump, who has been impeached twice and convicted of 34 felony convictions since beating Clinton – has sent some Democratic women soul searching.

Melinda Corey, a 56-year-old Washington, DC, resident, said she thought both Clinton and Harris were the most qualified candidates in the years they ran.

“I’m ready for a female president, I just don’t think that most of America is yet, and I don’t know why,” she said. “I hate to think that it’s because they’re women, but all things seem to point that direction.”

Priya Lewis and Kamori Thomas, both 18-year-old freshmen at Howard University – Harris’ alma mater – described voting for the vice president as a historic moment. Thomas said it was powerful.

“There’s a certain amount of pride that comes with that,” Thomas added. “So, although this outcome didn’t necessarily go the way I wanted … it was still very important.”

Lewis said it was an “honor” to cast a ballot for Harris, but she also blamed herself – and the hope she felt for Harris – for her disappointment.

“There’s a lot of emotion going into feeling optimistic about a Black woman being president,” she said.

Harris supporters say her campaign – and her role as the first woman to serve as vice president – has already brought women that much closer to eventually winning the presidency. She has won at least 69 million votes – more than the 65.8 million Clinton won – and shifted the perception of who can run for the role.

“We’ve now normalized having women running, and now we just need to get them over the finish line,” said Kelly Dittmar, the director for research and a scholar at the Center for American Women and Politics.

Dittmar said Harris’ campaign exemplified the benefits of running for office as a woman – strong fundraising and a unique perspective and ability to speak on issues that affect women. But her campaign also highlighted the challenges women face, including gendered and racialized attacks from Trump on her intelligence and strength and an “electability bias” – namely, the fear that the country isn’t ready to elect a woman.

Nadia Brown, the director of the women’s and gender studies program at Georgetown University, said the country isn’t ready for a female president, but not because of Harris or Clinton. Brown pointed to gendered perceptions of different leadership roles.

“Research over time has shown that Americans are okay with women as political leaders,” she said. “But it’s only certain types of political leaders.”

Even in a year when Harris lost, many other women made history.

There will be 13 female governors in 2025, a new record. In the Senate, Angela Alsobrooks will be the first Black woman to represent Maryland and Lisa Blunt Rochester will be the first woman to represent Delaware. Together, the two Democrats will be the first two Black women to serve in the chamber at the same time. And in the House, Republican Julie Fedorchak will be North Dakota’s first congresswoman and Democrat Sarah McBride of Delaware will be the country’s first out transgender member.

Harris herself has spent her decades-long career ignoring her history-making electoral wins. During a 2017 interview with former Obama adviser David Axelrod, Harris spoke about being the “first” in several of her early jobs, and her response to journalists who asked her what it was like.

“I would tell them, ‘I really don’t know how to answer that question because, you see, I’ve always been a woman, but I’m sure a man could do the job just as well,’” she told Axelrod, who is a CNN contributor.

At this year’s Democratic National Convention, Harris again stopped short of embracing the historic nature of her run. Just as they did in 2016, female delegates wore white to symbolize the history of the suffragette movement and the progress women have made. But unlike Clinton – who had centered her campaign around its historic nature and also wore white to accept the nomination – Harris wore a black suit.

In her concession speech 11 weeks later, however, Harris alluded to the disappointment of those who’d hoped she would achieve what Clinton had not.

“Don’t ever give up,” Harris told the crowd at Howard University. “And don’t you ever listen when anyone tells you something is impossible because it has never been done before.”

The question now is whether history will continue to repeat itself. Trump’s victory in 2016 prompted a wave of political activity fueled in large part by women. People attended Women’s March events across the world, a record number of women were elected to Congress in 2018 and six women ran for the Democratic party nomination in 2020, including Harris.

Christina Reynolds, a spokesperson for EMILY’s List, said her organization doesn’t consider the burst of female political engagement as a wave, but a “sea change” that has persisted. She pointed to the women who did make history Tuesday night and the ones they’ll join in office.

“As disappointing as this is, and devastating as this is, there are still going to be women out there standing up for our rights, bringing our voices to the table, to governments … around the country and in DC,” she said.

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