Well it’s another Monday…or is it? Saturday brought the official end to the Hillary Clinton campaign for President. Many pundits and wannabes had been talking of this day for months. Some have hypothesized that it might take another generation before women get this close to breaking that “ultimate glass ceiling.” Instead I offer this ray of hope - If Saturday was the ending to one chapter, today is the first Monday in a new era.

I am fresh from spending the weekend with some of the smartest women in this country at the National Council for Research on Women. The unwritten theme was the Clinton campaign, what it means to women and where do we go from here? It was not a funeral, despite some depressing statistics. Rather I learned a lot from the amazing women I spent time with. Instead of mourning what could had been, we should relish in that fact that we know that men will vote for a woman to be President. We should rejoice that a woman can run for office without being called too weak for the position.

Marie Wilson at the opening plenary was the most optimistic. She said that this is our time - women’s time. Wilson runs The White House Project which is a nonprofit that trains women to run for office. I attended one last December in Milwaukee, WI and it was quite an experience. Wilson noted that since Clinton’s campaign, women have been so excited about running for office that the White House Project has seen more and more women sign up for training. She also reminded us that while Clinton might not have won, she changed the landscape forever.

I am reminded of Shannon Faulkner, the first woman at the Citadel. She ended up quitting, but soon after women enrolled at the recently co-ed institution and ended up graduating. As of 2005, women make up 6% of the student population. It is freaking hard to be a first, but it’s easier to be the second, especially if you are there with the third and forth. Not easy, mind you…just easier. I am sure some of you reading this have been the first [fill in the blank].

Now that we have painfully gotten the first serious/electable/viable woman candidate for President out of the way, what do we do next?

Run.

Yes, mamas, I’m talking to YOU.

Look around you. Ever wonder why it takes a child getting hit by a speeding car before you can get speed bumps installed on your busy street? Are you upset that the school board voted to allow money be spent on abstinence-only-until-marriage sex education curriculum despite report after report showing that it does not work? Then perhaps you need to attend a White House Project training or join She Should Run and start planning your own campaign.

When I was a kid, I dreamed of being the first woman President (at 33, I just might still have time!), but my electoral dreams had been tempered by what I thought was reality and the fact that I haven’t paid my dues with “the party.” I also got it into my head that despite being one smart cookie, that I couldn’t do it. Of course, that’s bull. What changed my mind? LOBBYING.

A few years ago I got into a van and went to lobby one of my state officials. When this person, not much older than I came out of the chamber to listen to my pitch about a bill, I realized, as they snapped their gum and rolled their eyes, that I was soooo much smarter than this person.

Am I launching my campaign here at Work it, Mom? Um, no. I do see myself getting pretty involved in a campaign and even working full-time on one in the future. But I am asking you to seriously consider running for office or working on a campaign. Look into what the responsibilities are for being on your local school board. It might not be as much as you think. Heck, Chicago alderman and state Assembly people are technically part-time workers (who earn almost $100,000 a year).

Just take a second and imagine a world, your community, what it would look like if the people in power knew intimately what a real budget crisis meant, how to negotiate that your partner take the day off instead of you, and of course how to write policy that didn’t have a loophole in it that your 17-year-old could drive the Prius through. Yes, mamas, we have economic, diplomatic, and policy experience under our mom jean belts. Is it better than the JDs and MBAs that glitter the halls of power? Take a look around this country and ask yourself that question again.

I used the photo above because I thought it summed up where the Clinton campaign took us. Even girls that small could see what it meant to see a woman on the stage asking for votes. That girl is our daughter and one day we might vote for her. And when I say “Our daughter” I mean, ours in community wise. She’s not my daughter. Sorry for the confusion!