Chelsea Clinton: Having female president important for ‘symbolic reasons’

In an interview with ELLE magazine that was timed suspiciously well with her mother’s official announcement of her presidential bid, Chelsea Clinton stressed the “importance of having a woman president.”

“We’ve made real progress on legal protections for women, but in no way are women at parity to men in our country in the workplace,” Chelsea explained, according to excerpts from the interview to be featured in the May issue of ELLE.

Of particular concern to Hillary Clinton’s daughter, of course, is the lack of women in politics.

“If we look in the political sphere, it is challenging to me that women comprising 20 percent of Congress is treated as a real success,” Chelsea said. “Since when did 20 percent become the definition of equality?”

“And so when you ask about the importance of having a woman president, absolutely it’s important, for, yes, symbolic reasons — symbols are important; it is important who and what we choose to elevate, and to celebrate,” she continued. “And one of our core values in this country is that we are the land of equal opportunity, but when equal hasn’t yet included gender, there is a fundamental challenge there that, I believe, having our first woman president — whenever that is — will help resolve.”

Chelsea insisted that having a woman in the Oval Office would make a “substantive difference” for the entire female population of America in terms of achieving opportunities equal to their male counterparts.

The ELLE interview, which will hit newsstands nationwide on April 21, was teased just days before Hillary Clinton officially announced her presidential campaign.

Chelsea congratulated Hillary on Twitter after the announcement Sunday, describing herself as “proud” of her mother.