The first woman to emerge as the frontrunner of a major United States political party, Hillary Clinton seemed poised to take advantage of a new wave of feminism in the country. In sharp contrast to 2008, in the 2016 race she has emphasised women's issues as the path-breaking theme of her candidacy. Yet Clinton has struggled to make inroads with young women. In the New Hampshire primary, she lost the support of women under age 30 by 59 points. Results such as these spawned a rash of articles detailing Clinton's "woman problem".
Thank goodness for Donald Trump.
![Illustration: Andrew Dyson](/web/20170425152114im_/http://www.theage.com.au/content/dam/images/g/n/x/y/p/c/image.related.articleLeadwide.620x349.gnxhl6.png/1460115775177.jpg)
In the past few weeks, Trump has been at the centre of a misogyny firestorm. First, he attacked Heidi Cruz, wife of opponent Ted Cruz. He then rushed to the defence of his campaign manager, Corey Lewandowski, who was charged with battery after bruising a young female reporter. Trump, who had previously suggested the reporter had fabricated the assault, now said she was exaggerating her injuries and that Lewandowski did nothing wrong.
The day after Lewandowski was charged, Trump told television talk-show host Chris Matthews that women should face "some sort of punishment" for having an abortion. (He has since changed his position.)
![Hillary Clinton takes photos with supporters in Norfolk, Virginia.](/web/20170425152114im_/http://www.theage.com.au/content/dam/images/g/n/7/m/k/k/image.related.articleLeadwide.620x349.gnxhl6.png/1460115775177.jpg)
These events have crystallised the consequences of Trump's anti-women rhetoric in a way nothing else has. By trotting out old-school misogyny, Trump has provided a tidy solution for Clinton's woman problem.
On the issue of female voters, Clinton has struggled with two related problems: that she is out of touch with modern feminism, and that there is nothing historic about her candidacy.
These problems became clear in an incident involving former secretary of state Madeleine Albright. At a Clinton rally in early February, Albright declared: "There's a special place in hell for women who don't help each other." The backlash was immediate, especially from young feminists who rejected the notion they should support Clinton simply because she is a woman.
The controversy highlighted a generational divide in feminism, one that separates Clinton and Albright from women under 30 – a demographic Clinton has largely failed to win over.
![Donald Trump campaigns in Wisconsin on Wednesday.](/web/20170425152114im_/http://www.theage.com.au/content/dam/images/g/n/v/n/w/i/image.related.articleLeadwide.620x349.gnxhl6.png/1460115775177.jpg)
Clinton came of age just as second-wave feminism was beginning to swell. She was 16 when Betty Friedan published The Feminine Mystique, the book that suggested that maybe, just maybe, women would be happier if they had options beyond the life of the suburban housewife.
Thirty years later, when Clinton first entered the White House as first lady, female politicians still faced enormous barriers. Until 1992, there were only two women in the US Senate. Those senators, Barbara Mikulski and Nancy Kassebaum, caused a ruckus when they appeared on the Senate floor wearing pants instead of skirts. When Carol Moseley Braun, who was elected to the Senate in 1992, went to get her photo ID, the clerk handed her a card that read "Spouse". "Try again," she said as she handed it back.
![Clinton speaks at in Ohio.](/web/20170425152114im_/http://www.theage.com.au/content/dam/images/g/n/m/c/b/z/image.related.articleLeadwide.620x349.gnxhl6.png/1460115775177.jpg)
So it was that Clinton came to Washington at a time when representation was a measure of progress, a time when pants suits were a political statement, and being part of "the establishment" was itself a revolutionary act.
Millennial women (those born in the past 30 years) have grown up in a radically different world. The number of women in the US Senate has climbed from two to 20. Before 1997, no woman had ever been secretary of state. Now, three of the past five have been women. And for the past eight years, Clinton has been the Democrats' most likely 2016 nominee.
![Pop singer Katy Perry and Hillary Clinton at a Democrat fundraiser in Iowa last year.](/web/20170425152114im_/http://www.theage.com.au/content/dam/images/g/n/v/c/g/v/image.related.articleLeadwide.620x349.gnxhl6.png/1460115775177.jpg)
Representation is a fact of life for millennial feminists. For many of them, the battle has moved on to new ground, to renewed debates over intersectionality (the idea that racism, sexism and other forms of discrimination are linked and cannot be examined separately), economic justice and sexuality. They look at former president Bill Clinton's policies – welfare reform, the Don't Ask Don't Tell policy on gays and lesbians in the military, tough crime legislation – as fundamentally conservative, and see Hillary Clinton indicted by his legacy.
Being the wife of a former president undercuts her claims too, making her candidacy seem not historic but old-fashioned, even regressive.
And that's why Trump's candidacy is such good news for Clinton. An April 1 Gallup poll showed that seven of 10 women view Trump unfavourably. With Trump as the nominee, the debate over women's role in politics and society moves back several decades, making Clinton's second-wave feminism relevant again.
In the face of Trump's anti-women politics and rhetoric, Clinton has an opportunity to position herself as both an underdog and as a feminist icon who transcends generational boundaries.
For a frontrunner, Clinton has faced a surprising number of obstacles to her nomination. But if Trump is the nominee, she can not only solve her problem with millennial women, but bolster the Obama coalition by bringing even more female voters into the Democratic camp.
And for that, she can thank Donald Trump.
Nicole Hemmer is an Age columnist. She is a research affiliate at the US Studies Centre at the University of Sydney and a visiting research associate at the University of Virginia's Miller Centre.
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