Clinton’s Defeat Means Lost Chances for Many Women on the Rise

Hundreds of women who were poised to take jobs -- and burnish their careers -- in a Hillary Clinton administration are now facing deferred ambitions.

As the first woman nominated as president by a major political party, Clinton said she intended to form a cabinet that reflected the country’s gender balance. Women were in the running for chief of staff and secretaries of treasury and defense, posts that previously only had been held by men. Her West Wing and executive branch agencies would have been staffed with women who’ve spent decades working their way up the Democratic Party’s power structure.