Women presidential candidates have hit critical mass when they can tell their woman-stories...

[Hekate]

...without fear of seeming weak (i.e. unmanly).

It hit me last night. Amy Klobuchar talked about giving birth to a baby who had to stay in the NICU while she was forced to leave the hospital 24 hours after giving birth, and ultimately went to the legislature to get that rule changed. Elizabeth Warren talked about wanting to be a teacher from earliest childhood as "I lined up my dollies and taught school. I was firm but fair."

These are specifically woman-stories. Hillary could not tell hers -- nor could so many other women who entered political life before her. Hillary had to appear strong the way a man would because she was alone on that stage without a sisterhood around her.

My heart just swelled when it hit me. Did you notice? Did you see?

[Doreen]

1. I absolutely loved the dollies story.

Both of their recalls of their past were great.

[Hekate]

2. I did too. It was a laugh-line in her story of overcoming and persistence, and yet...

...it was a story no male candidate could or would tell.

Same with Amy. It's a very different thing coming out of the mouth of a husband, no matter how wonderful he is. This is HER story, and now she gets to tell it.

I'm 72 this month. This is a big deal -- or as Biden would say, a BFD.

[Doreen]

3. It is empowering for all of us women.

It is about damn time we have that. We have damn well earned it....the hard way.

[DrFunkenstein]

4. Hillary's Need To Appear "Tough" in Foreign Policy

Made it very difficult to get behind her. It's a big reason why I sided with Obama in 2008.

Hearing the women candidates talk about their struggles specifically as women is just amazing. Absolutely agree with you on that!

I would add how blown away I was to hear Mayor Pete talk about his coming out story. I love that his sexuality does not need to define him - I think of him as a candidate, not "the gay" candidate - but that at the same time he can be so comfortable speaking about it as an important part of his life.

[blm]

6. I don't think of Pete as the 'gay candidate", at all.

We have a solid group.

[pnwmom]

5. I sorta noticed but couldn't quite put my finger on what was different. You nailed it, Hekate!

Thank you!

[sheshe2]

7. K&R

[lunatica]

8. Hey, you're right!

Woohoo! Now we can start doing things “like a girl!”

[CTyankee]

9. We've never had a president who has given birth! Now that I think about it, that's kinda weird...

[Leith]

10. They are human stories

And now all humans get to tell theirs. I liked - and appreciated - hearing all of them.

[calimary]

11. Good point. There's so much more common ground and shared experiences now

for women breaking through in a (previously-owned) "man's world". There wasn't a lot of that when I was trying to get into the news biz back in the mid-70s, either. Quite different now. Nice to see we've evolved in some ways.

[SunSeeker]

12. Exactly. Women's lives are AMERICAN lives. We aren't some subspecies.

Biden talks about the tragedy of losing his son, and no one thinks twice about it. But a woman talks about giving birth and it's unusual. That's because women tend not to talk about these woman-specific experiences so as to not appear unrelatable. This, sadly, acknowledges that many people see it as if what happens in a woman's life is not really life. That has to end.

[Karadeniz]

13. Congratulations on your perception! You make a significant point...thanks for sharing!

[RainCaster]

14. I didn't see that, but you're right!

This is a very good point that I hadn't considered. I am rather handicapped as a dude, because my POV is so very different.

However, I do have two mothers, (including my MIL), 3 sisters, a wife and a daughter. All of them are very important in my life, and I want the world to improve for all of them. How many are like that? Lots of us I'm sure. We all need to support the women in our lives by supporting feminism. We each have our own take on it- let the world know.

[stuffmatters]

15. Yes,Hekate, it's a sea change. W & K are proudly and unequivocabley women candidates.

[Hekate]

16. I think I'm going to send off for a She Persisted T-shirt from Warren's campaign, just because...

There's also a coffee mug that says Persist -- But First Coffee.

[ecstatic]

17. Great point. I didn't notice.

Maybe it was always OK to share our stories and we just didn't know it?

[Hekate]

18. It might depend on your age. Second-wave feminists were tough Athena-women succeeding ...

...in a man's world, and the battle-advice they gave the rest of us really had that flavor. How well I remember it. "Find a mentor" -- really? How is that even done? "You can do it all/you can have it all" -- Pardon me, but what a crock of shit that was for most of us.

And of course, never show weakness in the business or academic world.

They spoke a different language than I was brought up with. Feminism felt so right, so just, but I wanted to be a mother and raise children at home, and when I was thrust untimely into the work-world with a BA and 2 toddlers to support I looked around my town and ended up as a secretary. Every day I felt like a failure, at home for not being there for my kids and at work for not knowing how to get beyond where I was.

But my musings aside: No, it was not safe to share our stories. It was not safe to have difficulties with child care. It was not okay to take time off work to care for a sick child. It was not okay to get phone calls at work for any reason (and there were no cell phones).

I thought my problems were because I was so low on the totem pole that people had no respect for me and my job, and if only... And then I ran into (almost literally) a young physician tearing out of the day care center, and was told by the caregivers that she had the exact same problems at the clinic where she was employed that I had at the university where I worked. Our mutual problem was being female and being mothers, not who had achieved more academically or who had better focus on a career.

Hillary Clinton is my age. She was shaped in that era: young, idealistic, ambitious. A skilled lawyer. For various reasons she early on became the favorite piñata of the RW hate-machine. But talk about persisting! Talk about being a unicorn... She was criticized for being too harsh, criticized for being too soft, attacked for being the wrong woman. But what a pioneer.

To have this many women all at once running for POTUS, and this many among the top 10 is amazing enough. But to hear them share their personal stories as women and not try to elide them as something generic to be non-threatening to a male audience just blew me away.

[ecstatic]

19. Thank you for your detailed response! My mom hasn't really shared that

perspective with me because she and all of her sisters immigrated to the United States in the 70s and they all went to nursing school, which was (and still is) a field that's dominated by women. Also, she would just drop me and my sister off at her mom's house and had at least 5 siblings to help. Her memories and stories center more around being a black immigrant working in hospitals under rude and/or racist / xenophobic doctors.

Anyway, regarding childcare, this is why Warren's universal childcare idea is so important! I think things are getting worse for moms because the days of dropping the kids off with the grandparents are basically gone!