Clinton is the best candidate for president

We believe the American people must elect a woman to the presidency. Not any woman, this woman: Hillary Rodham Clinton.

We, and a good number of Super Tuesday voters, believe a Clinton victory will smash the proverbial glass ceiling, and the heights to which women can rise will have no limit.

We rally 'round her not solely because she is a woman. She is the best-qualified candidate, and she happens to be female.

We are a few years older than the front-running Democrat, all former classmates at Elkins Park Junior High and Cheltenham High School. Together we have produced four daughters, five sons, 10 granddaughters, and four grandsons. It is for their benefit that we support Clinton and the promise she holds for all women and men, feminists or not.

In this patriarchal society of ours, people have expected men to earn the bulk of the income. Even though we see the patriarchy crumbling, slowly, some women don't support Hillary. Perhaps they are not ready to handle women on the ascendancy.

Women have always held families together, a talent for which they earn little respect. In our generation, women became teachers, nurses, and secretaries, working until the time came to bear children. Then they stayed home washing cloth diapers. Their careers were over, at least until the last offspring left for college.

But today women nurture their families and work as pharmacists, accountants, and military combatants. Women earn more money than ever before, at least at the bottom of every career ladder. Even though wage inequality persists, young women step onto the ladder in almost every field. Glaring exceptions are science, technology, engineering, and mathematics, which qualified women tend to avoid because they don't feel comfortable in mostly male classrooms and labs.

Yes, women are making progress, and many think they have it made and can do it all. But young women have not been around long enough to recognize that incremental success rarely leads to a chair in the boardroom.

Women have excelled in leading many other countries. Today 22 countries have women presidents, chancellors, or prime ministers, and two more have female governors-general. Switzerland has elected six female presidents.

Best known and most highly praised among female leaders are Golda Meir, prime minister of Israel, and Indira Gandhi, twice prime minister of India. Both led their nations to unprecedented levels of glory and the women who elected them to unprecedented heights.

We care primarily, essentially, and dramatically about the rights and future of American women. Today we face an opportunity to improve forever the lives of women. If we elect this woman to the presidency, it will be on the merits of her candidacy. Clinton will neutralize this blatantly ineffective men-first mantra of our democracy precisely by proving that a woman can be first.

A Clinton presidency will lead us to a stable and powerful future. Her leadership of the finest country in the world will entice girls and young women to aim even higher.

Vote for Hillary Clinton for the sake of your granddaughters, stepdaughters, and nieces, and all the men who love them.

Linda Blair is a retired high school English teacher living in Springfield, Va. linda.n.blair@gmail.com
Susan Glazer, of Wynnewood, is the retired director of the School of Dance at the University of the Arts in Philadelphia.  susan.glazer@gmail.com
Susan Perloff is a writer and editor in Philadelphia.  writerphiladelphia@gmail.com