Hillary Clinton’s Candidacy in Historical and Global Context

This chapter analyzes the ways in which Clinton's campaign both built upon and departed from the campaigns of previous female contenders for the presidency, including Victoria Woodhull, Margaret Chase Smith, and Patricia Schroeder. It shows that Clinton's comparative success can be explained by her unprecedented ability to raise funds and mobilize party networks. Yet while Clinton's tremendous success set her apart from her predecessors, her candidacy did not represent a total break with the past. Her failure to win the presidency and join the ranks of Margaret Thatcher, Angela Merkel, and other female heads of state can be explained in part by the peculiar demands of presidential elections in the American constitutional system.