On Saturday night as she spoke to the nation for the first time as the Vice President-elect of the United States, Kamala Harris wore white.

Many women — and, hopefully, many men — will recognize the significance of her choice.

The reason that the suffragettes wore white was the concept that by making a color — rather than a specific garment — their identifier, they could draw women of any economic status, race or any other qualifier to their movement.

Although Congress passed the 19th Amendment, which gave women the right to vote, on June 4, 1919, it wasn’t ratified until Aug. 18, 1920. The symbolism of America getting its first woman in one of the nation’s two highest offices this year can’t be denied.

One hundred years after women were able to cast their ballots, a woman finally came one step farther to breaking the glass ceiling. The question is: What took so long?

Harris is the fourth woman to appear on a presidential ticket — Geraldine Ferrarro was Walter Mondale’s running mate in 1984, Sarah Palin ran with John McCain in 2008 and Hillary Clinton became the first woman to get a major political party’s nomination in 2016 — and the second person of color to hold one of the nation’s top two offices.

But this was finally the year that a woman was on the winning ticket. It’s a fitting way to mark the 100th anniversary of women gaining the right to vote. We hope it sends a message to all girls and young women in this country that no dream is too big or unattainable.

Harris — and President-elect Joe Biden — will have their work cut out for them in the months and years ahead, from getting the coronavirus pandemic under control and boosting the economy to helping heal a nation in the midst of a bitter partisan divide.

It won’t be easy — but we wish them success.

Although there are many people who voted in the 2020 election and did not get the result they wanted, there is one thing that Harris said on the stage in Wilmington, Del., on Saturday night with which we believe they’d agree. “While I may be the first woman in this office, I will not be the last,” she said. Let it be so.

— NCD