About This Lesson
History is full of women cracking or breaking through glass ceilings in their respective fields of work. The concept of the “glass ceiling” refers to an invisible but real barrier that keeps women (and other groups) from rising to the top of their field. The metaphor was coined in 1978 and popularized the next years when it was used by an increasing number of conference speakers and authors. This lesson plan looks at women politicians who cracked the glass ceiling of politics. In 1984, Democrat Geraldine Ferraro became the first woman vice-presidential candidate on a major party ticket. In 2008, Sarah Palin became the second woman vice-presidential candidate on a major party ticket. After losing her bid for the Democratic presidential ticket in 2008, Hillary Clinton stated: “Although we weren’t able to shatter the highest, hardest glass ceiling this time, thanks to you, it’s got about 18 million cracks in it.” In 2016, after becoming the Democratic presidential candidate, Clinton stated: “we just put the biggest crack in that glass ceiling yet.”
