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Hillary Blames America’s ‘Sexism and Misogyny’ for Her 2016 Loss

‘I was appalled at the level of sexism and obviously the behavior of Trump’
By Grabien Staff
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Hillary Clinton is pinning blame on America's "endemic" of "sexism and misogyny" for her 2016 loss to President Trump. 

Clinton said that in America, women are often afraid to speak openly about their opinions, and that sexism is worse today than it was when she came of age in the 50s and 60s. 

"The [Trump] campaign was kind of Exhibit A of what we’re up against," Clinton said Sunday. "There does seem to be a backlash against women speaking out. You see it online as women express an opinion and then are totally deluged. You see it Silicon Valley, you see it in the media, you see it in a lot of places where women’s advancement has gone very far. Much further than it certainly seemed at the time when I was coming of age."

Clinton said that her story of being from a middle class background was less "galvanizing" to "sexist" American voters than her husband's, or Barack Obama's, like stories. 

"I think sexism and misogyny are endemic in our society and I do try to take readers on a journey with me and obviously I use Bill’s story and Barack’s story to tell how galvanizing, you know, they were because people immediately saw this arc from, you know, poverty in Hope, Arkansas, from a bi-racial family in Hawaii and how impressive and exciting their stories were," Clinton told CNN's Fareed Zakaria. "I’m a middle-class girl from the middle of the country. So I always struggled with it. What’s my story? And it suddenly dawned on me that I was the beneficiary of these radical changes in, you know, women’s rights and opportunities that began in the ‘60s and continue and that I could have and maybe should have tried harder to tell that story but I quickly add, as you point out, I never thought there would be that receptive an audience and I think that what's happened since this election may have cracked that open, I hope it has."

Clinton says, on a more hopeful note, that her campaign inspired thousands of women to overcome America's sexist obstacles.

"You know, I’m seeing tens thousands of people on my book tour and, you know, I’ve now shaken 7 or 8,000 hands at book signings and spoken, you know 10,000 more, and I still have much more to do," Clinton said. "There seems now to be a willingness by more and more women and girls to claim their rights in a very explicit way. Not in an apologetic way. Not like, 'Oh, excuse me, let me express my opinion.' But, 'No, I have an opinion. I want to tell you what that opinion is.'"

"Because I was appalled at the level of sexism and obviously the behavior of Trump, both in the past and during the campaign was kind of Exhibit A of what we’re up against, and there does seem to be a backlash against women speaking out. You see it online as women express an opinion and then are totally deluged. You see it Silicon Valley, you see it in the media, you see it in a lot of places where women’s advancement has gone very far. Much further than it certainly seemed at the time when I was coming of age. But there is this pushback now and I think we need — and not just women, but fathers of daughters and husbands of wives and people who care about fundamental fairness. And in the book I say, 'look, feminist seems to be like a word nobody wants to use.' But that’s because it’s not appropriately understood. Feminism is not about women having more rights. It’s about women having equal rights -- in the workplace, in the politics of a society, in the culture, having the right to be yourself and to be able to express that and to have that both appreciated and providing a platform to go as far as your talent and hard work will take you.”

Clinton, asked about losing the women vote, said that she won Hispanic and black female voters and that most of the white women voters she lost were "predominantly non college-educated."

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