Hillary Clinton, in the American political landscape, is synonymous with loss. Defeat. Humiliation. Deference. A blot on the feminist masterpiece, for she signified that the females must succumb to the patriarchy.

Yet in the shadows of Clinton’s agonizing defeat was hidden a ray of empowerment- a stimulus that emboldened women to resist  misogyny embedded in the new political status quo of archconservatism.

As Clinton ebbed, women swelled. Intolerant of maltreatment and in-defensive of force, groundswells of women swarmed to industries and politics, claiming their jobs, their rights, and their honor. Trump’s anti-feminine rhetorical backlash that pounded Clinton now propels her supporters to speak their truths and reform gender dynamics in the modern era.

The loss of Hillary Clinton is why I rise.”

-Stephanie Schriock, candidate for the Michigan House of Representatives

The unanticipated defeat of a competent leader to an volatile demagogue has splintered the very foundation of not only the female manifesto, but also of cultural values. Clinton was unerringly equipped for each debate, each question, each word of skepticism or opposition. America, however, decided that her predictability was bland. America desired racialization and hostility rather than multicultural mosaics of coexistence.

But the demolition of an establishment only clears the grounds for construction of a more majestic structure. The revolutionary MeToo movement is a new foundation, its elements comprised of equality, dissent, and raw defiance. These elements are toppling the patriarchy, and very soon, the patriarchs.

Hillary Clinton has been a trailblazer for the female establishment, feminizing Congress and inspiring young minds with her symbolic election to an overwhelmingly male Senate, in a time when female representatives were honorary appointees or the widows of past senators.

Yet we scorn at her with disdain, while we wholeheartedly participate in the MeToo movements and Women’s Marches ignited by her dignified retreat.

Maybe [the election] has gotten a lot more people awakened, or woke, as they say. That might be something that can’t be stopped.” –Lawyer Nancy Erika Smith

The Clinton campaign symbolized a woke future for the nation- one in which men and women would be accountable for their words, for their actions, for their ideologies.

For the woman whose gender was an obstruction to the presidency in a nation that upholds egalitarianism, it is the female pledge that women will, in the near future, attain this position that is long overdue. To reach the pinnacle of the pedestal, we will ascend the political stairway by sparring with male entitlement. Women will equally occupy town boards, city councils, state legislatures, Congress, and, ultimately, the presidency, governing decisively and powerfully.

Yet to crystallize this vision that Clinton resurrected with her ambitious campaign, women must dominate the 2018 midterm elections. It is time that the legislative bureaucracy be remedied of its ingrained bias against half of the citizenry. Clinton cracked the ice for women in politics, as seen by the 65.8 million votes she received. It is time that women take her lead and submerge the iceberg of male dominance.