The Current

'President for all Americans': Women voters react to Trump's win

Donald Trump's divisive victory over Democrat Hillary Clinton is the result of a populist campaign. The Current asks what does a Trump presidency mean for women and minorities in the U.S.? And what about the glass ceiling and the rift that remains?
This U.S. election held high expectations that a woman in the White House would shatter the glass ceiling. It remains intact. ( )

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In an election where expectations ran high that the glass ceiling for a woman in the White House would be shattered — it remains intact.

A deeply divided America has Donald Trump as their newly-elected president pledging to the country "to come together as one united people."

Clinton supporter and women's right activist Jaclyn Friedman just can't do that.

"I do not plan to ever unify under a President Trump. That's anathema to everything that I believe in, " Friedman tells The Current's Anna Maria Tremonti.
Victoria Woodhull was the first woman to run for president in 1872. (Mathew Brady/Wikimedia)

"Donald Trump has run a campaign based on hate and divisiveness," says Friedman.

"I am greatly afraid for the future of our country."

"I have profound concerns about the future of press freedom in our country. I have concerns about climate change. I have concerns for my friends who are Muslim, who are immigrants. For myself as a Jew, and a woman. He is a serial sexual predator. I could continue to go on."

"I have great faith that our country will come back together, Republican National Committee Finance co-chair Mica Mosbacher tells Tremonti.

She has campaigned and supports Donald Trump because she says he represents real change and frustration in the U.S.

"Unless you live in the States you don't understand that people are feeling disenfranchised. They are feeling left behind," says Mosbacher.

"Their wages are going down and cost of living going up … people have felt like that they had no voice."

In Mosbacher's view, "the Republican playbook was not working" until Trump came along. She sees a promising future ahead where Trump will bring back jobs to America, and bring back hope to decaying communities like Ohio and other Rust Belt states where he brought in so many votes.

In Trump's victory speech he vowed to be an inclusive leader - a 'president for all Americans.' (Jonathan Ernst/Reuters)

Lawyer Anoa Changa voted for Green Party candidate Jill Stein but expected a Clinton presidency.

She tells Tremonti that Trump's campaign invigorated "a very nasty, insidious side of America" — but it's a side of America that exists.

"Everyone who's running around sad and scared and worried, we've already had issues of racism and terrorism and we've already had issues with deportations."

Changa sees Trump's win is an opportunity to continue the work that many have started.

"I'm a black mother living in an urban area and the dangers that may face my children today or yesterday or a year from now are not going to change at all," says Changa.

"I never had any delusions that Hillary Clinton or Donald Trump would somehow save or ratify or change my life."

Listen to the full segment.

This segment was produced by The Current's Idella Sturino and Kristin Nelson.