Team Trump boasts his win ‘shattered the glass ceiling for women’

Kellyanne Conway, the third of Donald Trump’s three campaign managers, will soon have a pretty influential position in the White House. Trump’s transition office announced this morning that Conway, a longtime Republican pollster, will serve as “Counselor to the President.”The press statement from Trump Tower included much of what you’d expect — there’s a quote from the president-elect praising Conway, followed by a quote from Conway about feeling “humbled and honored” — but it also added one surprising claim:

There may be some confusion about what “shattered the glass ceiling for women” actually means.To be sure, Conway did something that hadn’t been done before. In 2000, Al Gore made Donna Brazile the first woman to manage a major-party nominee’s campaign, but the Supreme Court intervened before Gore could win that race, making Conway the first woman to manage a winning presidential ticket. Even though she only held the post for three months, it was nevertheless an impressive feat.But to do more meaningful damage to “the glass ceiling” that has stood in so many women’s way, Americans would have had to … I don’t know … perhaps elect the first woman president? If memory serves, voters were given a choice in the 2016 election, and the woman was the more qualified, more experienced, more prepared, more capable, and more knowledgeable candidate.She was nevertheless passed over for a man who boasted about sexually assaulting women and who was accused by several women of unwanted sexual advances. He also owned beauty pageants and picked a fight with a winning contestant whom he said weighed too much.After the election, Trump selected a cabinet that’s dominated by men — including choosing a team of white men for each of the top four posts, a presidential first since 1988.Trump’s election “shattered the glass ceiling for women”? Conway is to be congratulated on her successes and her new position, but whether Trump’s transition office can see the glass ceiling or not, it’ll be a while before it goes away.