There is no question that the results of the 2008 U.S.

presidential election were monumental. For the first time in the

nation's history, an African-American man has been elected to the

highest political office in the country. The presidential campaigns

themselves were also full of other important milestones in the fight for

truly diverse political representation. Hillary Clinton obtained over 18

million votes in the Democratic primaries, and for the second time a

woman was chosen as the Vice Presidential candidate for a major

political party. Now that the dust has settled from last November's

election, it is time for feminist scholars and activists to regroup and

begin a conversation about the impact of these events and the changes

they represent. Have the politics of civil rights changed fundamentally?

At all? Has the meaning of feminism broadened? Or narrowed? Will these

changes set the stage for future movement toward justice in the United

States? Patricia J. Williams, renowned legal scholar and expert on race

in the U.S., joins Laura Flanders, Barnard alumna and feminist

activist and journalist, in this conversation about the election and its

implications for future political alliances, possibilities, and risks. The

discussion, introduced by Janet Jakobsen and moderated by Ann Pellegrini,

took place on April 2, 2009 at Barnard College.