As she took the stage on opening night of the Democratic National Convention, Hillary Clinton spoke about the time she broke one of America’s strongest glass ceilings by becoming the first woman to be nominated for the presidency by a major party.

“When a barrier falls for one of us, it clears the way for all of us,” she said, repeating her speech at the party conference eight years ago.

But although her attempt to become president in November 2016 was historic, it ultimately ended in defeat when she lost the election to Donald Trump.

Now, she told thousands of people in Chicago, the time has come to pass the torch to Ms Harris as the Democratic Party makes its next attempt to put a woman in the White House.

“Together, we have made many cracks in the highest and hardest glass ceiling,” said Mrs. Clinton. “On the other side of that glass ceiling, Kamala Harris raises her hand and takes the oath of office as our 47th President of the United States.”

Times have changed since Mrs. Clinton set her sights on becoming the first female president of the United States, according to several female delegates and politicians attending the 2024 DNC in Chicago.

At the time, she made her gender a central issue in her campaign – a step that Ms. Harris appears to have avoided. But whether the political environment has changed enough for the vice president to reach the highest office in the land remains an open question.

Mrs Clinton has “broken a lot of glass for a lot of people,” Minyon Moore, chairman of the Democratic National Convention committee, told reporters on Monday morning.

But she said: “It’s not easy. We’re trying to change people’s mindsets.”

Politicians and delegates who spoke to the BBC said they had faced numerous obstacles in politics, both in running for office and in serving the community.

When Mallory McMorrow, a senator from Michigan, ran for office in 2018, she recalls being asked by a woman in her district if she planned to have children.

“She told me to my face that this is no job for a mother,” said Ms. McMorrow, the second senator in Michigan history to give birth while in office.

Judy Mount, the first African-American chairwoman of the Florida Democrats, said it took years for women to become leaders of her state’s political parties.

“People just don’t want to see a woman at the top of a power,” she said. “They don’t want that.”

During her 2016 presidential campaign, Mrs. Clinton fell victim to many of these obstacles. She was heavily criticized for her appearance, her clothing and even the sound of her voice.

She entered the campaign with more “baggage” than the average candidate, said Deloris Hudson, a delegate from Ohio to the DNC.

Voters judged Mrs. Clinton not only on her own qualifications and her record as secretary of state, but also on her relationship with her husband, former President Bill Clinton, Ms. Hudson said.

Ms Hudson said many women had condemned Mrs Clinton for staying with her husband after he had an affair with Monica Lewinsky, a White House intern.

“Many women thought after the affair, ‘Was she the strong woman she could have been because she stood by her husband?'” Ms Hudson said.

But ultimately, it was Clinton’s loss to Trump in 2016 that sparked women’s demonstrations across the country and prompted a record number of female candidates to seek political office in 2018. According to the Pew Research Center, 28.5 percent of seats in the House of Representatives are now held by women, compared to just 19.1 percent in 2017.

At the same time, over the past decade, the proportion of Americans who believe men are better suited to politics than women has steadily declined, according to data from the National Opinion Research Center at the University of Chicago.

Several elections later, Ms Harris is no longer under the same pressure as Mrs Clinton to “be everything to every woman,” Ms McMorrow said.

“Since then, we’ve seen more women running and winning at every single level, all the way to the top, giving us more freedom and flexibility to be ourselves,” she said.

Although the vice president’s aides and allies have pointed to the entrenched sexism she has faced throughout her career, Ms. Harris has tried to focus on her record rather than her gender identity. While Mrs. Clinton tried to win over voters to her female candidacy by coining the slogan “I’m for her,” Ms. Harris has largely avoided conversations about gender issues.

The move may be both intentional and natural, Ms McMorrow said.

“There are so many more of us (female politicians) that I don’t think it needs to be mentioned anymore,” she said.

Instead, that discussion has been left largely to her supporters, including women and voters of color who have helped raise millions of dollars for Ms. Harris. They have portrayed the 59-year-old as a younger, fresh alternative to the 78-year-old Trump, a candidate who has given the Democratic ticket some much-needed momentum three months before the election.

For some Democrats, such as U.S. Congresswoman Debbie Dingell of Michigan, Harris’ rise to the top of the ballot is a sign of the progress women have made in politics in recent years.

However, she added that much work remains to be done.

“We need to make sure that we’re inclusive, that no population feels left behind because someone else is successful,” Ms. Dingell said. “I think that’s something we need to continue to work on as a country.”