Hillary Clinton Talks About Being Nearly the Only Woman in the Room

Current presidential candidate and former secretary of State, senator, and first lady Hillary Clinton sat down with Humans of New York to share a personal story from her past, attempting to shed light on why she may at times seem impenetrable.

Clinton told a story about taking the Harvard Law School entrance exam and being one of a few women in the room. She was nervous about doing well but soon had more to worry about.

"While we're waiting for the exam to start, a group of men began to yell things like: 'You don't need to be here.' And 'There's plenty else you can do.' It turned into a real 'pile on,'" Clinton said. "One of them even said: 'If you take my spot, I'll get drafted, and I'll go to Vietnam, and I'll die.' And they weren't kidding around. It was intense. It got very personal."

However, instead of breaking down in tears or responding to the men who were heckling her, Clinton stared down at her test.

"I just kept looking down, hoping that the proctor would walk in the room," she said.

"I know that I can be perceived as aloof or cold or unemotional. But I had to learn as a young woman to control my emotions. And that's a hard path to walk. Because you need to protect yourself, you need to keep steady, but at the same time you don't want to seem 'walled off.'"

Women like Clinton must walk a difficult tightrope. She is expected to present as strong and commanding, but feminine and warm, due to gendered stereotypes we hold.