Since she lost the U.S. presidential election in 2016, Hillary Clinton will forever be synonymous with a failed, unlikable politician who wore fake smiles to state fairs, only to lose to the ridiculous blowhard who was equally unlikable. 

Once the face of women’s progress in American society, Clinton, in a few short months, has somehow been cast to the backwaters of American memory as a mere footnote. Some in the feminist community are now calling for a new symbol to their movement. Her failure as a candidate and ubiquity in public life the past two decades make it easy to yearn for a fresh face to lead the charge for women’s rights especially in the face of a hostile Trump and Pence administration.

While the American public may have legitimate misgivings over Clinton’s ethics in public life, removing her as a significant symbol of feminism in the United States would do the entire movement a great disservice. Despite being blamed for enabling her husband’s infidelities, being accused of maniacally riding his coattails to achieve power and being told her only chance at winning the presidency was the fact that she was a woman, she became the first female candidate of a major party for president in the country’s history, less than one hundred years after women gained the right to vote. 

She has been the favorite punching bag of the right-wing propaganda machine for the last 30 years. While husband Bill Clinton was president, she was attacked relentlessly for using her position as First Lady to work on a healthcare reform bill. She was Senator in New York during Sept. 11, a responsibility few would have the courage or fortitude to handle, and was continually lambasted throughout 2016 for supporting George W. Bush’s authorization to use force following the attack.  She was commonly referred to as a “grandma,” “shrill” and countless other stereotypes that were based off of nothing more than her gender. 

Coded sexism was a large theme of the Trump campaign strategy that used slogans like “Trump that b****” and invited Bill Clinton’s former mistresses to sit front row at the debates.

All public servants are subject to fair and unfair criticism by the press and opposing parties.  It is the simple reality of national politics.  But attempts to sift through some of the common caricatures that have plagued Clinton’s decades in public service and one would be hard pressed not to draw lines between many of those caricatures and typical sexist tropes. 

Of course, Clinton should still be attached to the feminist movement whether she chooses to publicly voice her support or not.  In the face of vicious attacks she rose to the top of one of our country’s oldest political institutions and won the popular vote for the presidency.  Many years down the road, as women look back on their progress, they will fondly remember the woman who subtly donned her famous pantsuit in white, the color of the suffragettes, accepting her nomination at the Democratic National Convention. Clinton can, and should, remain an icon of women’s perpetual search for equality in the U.S.