One hundred years ago the people of Montana elected the first woman to serve in the US House of Representatives. When they elected Jeannette Rankin in 1916 most women in the United States still didn’t have the right to vote let alone the chance to occupy the Oval Office. Since then just one woman has earned the nomination for the presidency from a major political party.

Women and men spent a century tearing down barriers for one woman to get this far. The military, law, and business, the typical paths to political power, remained closed to women for decades into the twentieth century. It took two world wars, the Civil Rights Movement, and most importantly the Women’s Liberation Movement to force open classrooms, boardrooms, and barracks to women.

Today women represent 50% of the US population and occupy only 19% of the seats in the House of Representatives and 20% of those in the Senate. We have to pick up the pace of change and support qualified female office holders so that women don’t have to wait another hundred years to see one of their own at the top of the ticket.

I will vote for Hillary Rodham Clinton on November 8, because women have waited long enough.

And, because she’s awesome.