BY JILL FILIPOVIC

if on november 7 you had asked me“ What will happen tomorrow?” I would have said that the first female president of the United States would be voted into office by a landslide. And nearly every pollster in the country would have backed up that statement.

The data-defying— and to some, devastating— outcome that business tycoon turned reality star turned rogue politician Donald Trump will, in fact, be the next leader of the free world has been dissected to death. The summary conclusion: Trump won his bid largely because of white male enthusiasm( 63 percent of white men, and a majority of men overall, voted for him).

But what stuns me is that, while most women voted for Hillary Clinton, we were not unified: Women of color decisively supported her( 94 percent of black women and 68 percent of Latinas), but a whopping 53 percent of white women cast their ballots for a man who ran a campaign steeped in sexism. That so many women rejected Clinton— who, despite her muchdiscussed flaws, was an overqualified candidate and lifelong advocate of women’ s rights— is hard for me to

stomach, let alone understand. An inescapable truth: There are still a lot of women who are not down for a paradigm power shift. For millennial females— the majority of whom voted for Clinton— this feels like a betrayal. It’ s us, not the Trumpvoting women over 45, who will suffer the consequences of the country the president-elect has promised to build: encroachments on our access to contraception, the dashed dream of paid parental leave, the potential end of abortion rights. The wrenching questions that float through my mind( and plague me in the middle of the night): How could so many of our mothers, aunts, and grandmothers risk our rights like this? How could even more of our fathers, husbands, brothers, and boyfriends do the same?

How, too, could so many of our ovary-owning peers?

Women in Clinton’ s generation, including the Democratic nominee herself, worked tirelessly to open doors to the many privileges we now enjoy: higher education, reproductive choice, better pay. For feminists like me, cavalierly putting those hard-earned freedoms in jeopardy is enraging … and heartbreaking. Trump

has been accused of sexual assault and made a series of misogynistic comments publicly. The realization that so many women were willing to accept Trump’ s own characterization of his remarks as normal“ lockerroom talk” suggests to me that many of us simply don’ t expect decent treatment from men … in our own homes or even in the White House.

But all hope is not lost. Socialjustice advocates are already preparing to fight any erosions to our rights. Grassroots organizers are staging a national women’ s march on Washington on January 21 in what will surely be an impressive show of solidarity. Closer to home, we have to get over the notion that it’ s impolite to talk about politics and challenge beliefs that marginalize and discriminate against women, people of color, and the LGBTQ community.

With the inauguration looming, I keep thinking of Trump’ s response when he was asked during a debate to say something nice about Clinton:“ She never gives up.” Maybe the best way to honor Hillary’ s legacy— and to ensure the continued advancement of women— is to heed those very words. ■

VICTOR G. JEFFREYS II

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