Female delegates at the DNC are wearing white to honor women’s suffrage on night of Harris’ speech
CHICAGO– If you think you see a lot of women in white during the final night of the Democratic National Convention in Chicago, you don’t need to adjust your television.
There appeared to be a coordinated effort by female delegates and Democratic supporters as they arrived at the United Center Thursday afternoon. The security lines and the convention floor seating filled with women dressed in white suits, dresses and other attire.
When Vice President Kamala Harris takes the stage to accept the Democratic presidential nomination β becoming the first Black woman, and only the second woman overall, to do so β she will look out over a sea of ββcolors tinged with the women’s suffrage movement that culminated in American women gaining the right to vote in 1920.
The tribute is a couture retrospective of other major political events in which women in white played a role, particularly at other glass ceiling moments.
Hillary Clinton wore a white suit when she accepted the Democratic Party’s presidential nomination in 2016. And Geraldine Ferraro β the first female vice presidential nominee β wore white when she accepted the nomination at the Democratic convention in 1984.
There have been other times, too. In 2019, the women of the U.S. House of Representatives a visual expression of solidarity during the State of the Union, along with some of their male colleagues, wore white jackets or ribbons in support. A year later, on the 100th anniversary of women’s suffrage, congresswomen again donned white, as a commitment to defending women’s rights in general.
And earlier this year, the Democratic Women’s Caucus announced that many of its members would wear white to the State of the Union, as a message of support for reproductive rights.
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Meg Kinnard can be reached at http://x.com/MegKinnardAP