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Linda Hirshman, author of Back to Work: A Manifesto

Inaugural Report
January 20, 2009

"President-elect Hillary Rodham Clinton walked down Pennsylvania Avenue this morning, in an impeccable black wool pantsuit, her buttery suede Manolo Blahniks tapping out a staccato rhythm as background music to history.

"Justice Ruth Bader Ginsberg, especially chosen to administer the oath of office, in place of the traditional Chief Justice, did not produce a Testament, Old or New. Instead, she pulled out a tattered copy of Betty Friedan's The Feminine Mystique and held it to the new Commander in Chief to swear her oath upon. "I swear," Hillary intoned, echoing the words of forty-three preceding American Presidents and became the first woman President of the United States.

"When the newly inaugurated Chief Executive approached the podium to begin her Inaugural Address, her daughter Chelsea, standing to one side, reached in her pocket and handed her mother a soft, knitted Mary-Tyler-Moore-style beret. President Clinton put it on, looked at the audience with a wide grin, pulled off the cap and threw it into the air, where a gust of wind picked it up and blew it up and up until it disappeared into the sky."

Jane Swift, acting governor of Massachusetts, 2001-2003

"As a Republican, I worked hard for my party's nominee, Senator John McCain. Despite being disappointed with the outcome, when Inauguration Day came, I'd have to smile to at the picture of a woman raising her right hand over the Bible instead of holding one in place for her husband. It hit me that my three daughters will never remember a time when a woman wasn't President of the United States. My eldest may vaguely recall my own stint as a state's chief executive -- maybe, if we remind her with photos -- but this enormous milestone is indelibly imprinted on her and her sisters' minds. The frustrations and fears of generations of women dissolve with one oath.

"Yet, when such a large amount of glass shatters, someone is bound to get hurt. The same old (sexist) questions hang in the air, along with the first strains of "Hail to the Chief." Is she up to the job? Is she tough enough? Is she smart enough? Is this just Bill redux with a female face? (It's two for one, have you heard?) As women, it's time to hold our fire. It's time to watch our sister's back -- at least until we can weigh the true merits of her presidency. No blank checks, but no gratuitous swipes either. Our daughters' inheritance is at stake."

Dee Dee Myers, first female press secretary (1993-1994), author of Why Women Should Rule the World: A Memoir

The 44th President's First Cabinet Meeting

"I'm glued to my television. Three, four, five. I count, as the camera pans the oversized oak table in the Cabinet Room of the White House. Nine, ten. Eleven women at the table! I can hardly believe my eyes. A reporter explains that this will be President Clinton's first cabinet meeting, just one day after her historic inauguration. But I am less interested in the words than the pictures. Eleven women! More than half the cabinet! And the sight of them sitting in the big, brown leather chairs, each with her name and title engraved on a brass plate fastened to the back, gives me a thrill.

"Not just half the cabinet, but half the Big Four -- the powerhouse positions claimed by the Secretaries of State, Defense, and Treasury and the Attorney General. They will flank the President and Vice President at the center of the table -- and at the very center of power.

"I went to cabinet meetings during the other Clinton presidency, and there were nowhere near as many women in the room -- not at the table, not among the senior staff seated along the walls, not even among the reporters recording the event for history. All the sudden the click, click, click of digital cameras interrupts my reverie, and a split second later she strides into the room. Madame President.

"If nothing else happens at the meeting, so much will already have been accomplished, and I'm surprised by how satisfied, how inspired, I feel as I reach for the remote and turn down the sound. This moment is about pictures -- and I love what I'm seeing."

Pepper Schwartz, author of Prime: Adventures and Advice on Love, Sex, and the Sensual Years

"After Hillary is elected, she will realize that male presidents have been too freaked out about their own sexuality to help others. She however, having had to think long and hard about how sexuality has affected her personal and political life, will be ready for some national action on the topic. Given her personal experience with a sexually undersocialized husband, she will correct two administrations of neglect and opposition to sex education and make it a serious priority. She will instruct the national Institutes to make funding for various kinds of sex research a priority and she will hold a summit on national sex education to see what is the best way to help our country, and the world, help people understand their bodies, psyches, and sexual health. While she might be tempted to make her spouse chair of this meeting (as penance for past errors in judgment and knowledge), she will resist that impulse."

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