I have to tell you that when I first joined Hillary’s campaign, I didn’t think it was going to be that hard or even that big of a deal to elect the first woman president. Let’s just say after having gone through this campaign, I have a different perspective.

Before I delve into all that happened in the campaign, I want to be clear that while misogyny and sexism were a problem on the campaign trail, I don’t believe everyone who voted against Hillary did so for sexist reasons. But I do believe we encountered an unconscious but pervasive gender bias that held Hillary back in many ways. I think it’s that subtle gender bias that made people find her so vexing. I think it comes from her being someone who pushed the boundaries of roles held by women for 40 years.

“Move forward, draw fire.” That was a line two of the Secret Service agents on Hillary’s detail would say to each other when they were managing a tricky internal situation. “Guess we only have one option left,” they would say. “Move forward, draw fire.” It always made me laugh. I found it to be true on the campaign side of the operation, too. It’s not an optimal political strategy. It would be better to just move forward. But it’s rare in politics when an offensive move doesn’t come with some collateral damage. You have to be comfortable with that. Women are particularly uneasy with drawing fire. Which is too bad. Because nothing draws fire like a woman moving forward.

Flying back from Florida on Oct. 29, 2016, the day after the infamous Comey letter came out, I joked with Hillary about what seemed to be her ever-growing number of opponents. It felt like we had four men running against us — Donald Trump, Vladimir Putin, Julian Assange, and Jim Comey. I don’t believe it is a coincidence that the first woman nominee of a major party ended up being hounded by four men, all taking actions that would influence the campaign in ways never before seen in our country’s history. Maybe that’s just how presidential campaigns are in the 21st-century. Or maybe there was just something about her the four of them didn’t like.

I think a lot of women initially viewed the uncertain post-Nov. 9 world with unease. We had lived our lives playing by a certain set of rules, and they had failed us. We didn’t know what to make of it at first. Could it be that women are meant to go only so far in the world? No, that can’t be it. Women haven’t plateaued; it is the rules we were playing by that are outdated. We are learning to appreciate that with this uncertainty comes an empowering new sense of possibility. I look around at all that women are doing in America today and I am inspired. Women aren’t just running for office in record numbers, they are winning in record numbers, too. In the worlds of art, politics, and business, women aren’t following anyone’s rules — they are creating their own game.

Read more: http://time.com/5207773/jennifer-palmieri-hillary-clinton-campaign/#d70876f5-3b56-4489-8eba-49cadc10bd3a