The nation is reeling from the results of the ugliest presidential campaign in our history. The campaign pitted a reality TV show mogul against a 40-year public servant. It pitted a crude misogynist bigot against a staunch feminist and civil rights advocate, Donald Trump vs. Hillary Clinton, sensationalism against statesmanship.

The results of this election are shocking to Democrats and particularly to the Hawaii Democratic Women’s Caucus. They are shocking to many of us who spent decades fighting for women’s rights only to see them relentlessly attacked in this election. They are shocking to the young feminists among us who saw in Clinton hope for their future.

We grieve for our collective loss, for this election has dashed the possibilities inherent in smashing the last and thickest glass ceiling in the most powerful democracy on Earth.

With pundits and bloggers across the spectrum conducting the postmortem, we want to make sure that the historic and extra- ordinary nature of Clinton’s candidacy is not lost. She ran as an unapologetic feminist woman, a “nasty” woman with a woman card to prove it.

She ran on her vast record of accomplishments too numerous to mention here. But we can highlight a few. She redefined women’s rights as human rights at the 4th U.N. Conference on Women. She helped create the Office on Violence Against Women at the Department of Justice. As U.S. secretary of state, she visited 112 countries, helping to repair a U.S. reputation badly damaged by the Iraq War. She made LGBT rights a focus of U.S. foreign policy, lobbied for the first U.N. Human Rights Council resolution on human rights and declared that “gay rights are human rights.”

Hillary Clinton’s candidacy was extra- ordinary and historic. She persevered against every dirty misogynist trick thrown at her to become the first woman nominee of a major party. She went on to receive the popular vote by over 2 million. She may not have won the presidency, but she has set a precedent for the future. Young women and girls will stand on her shoulders, as she has stood on the shoulders of past generations of feminists.

These feminists were women like Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Susan B. Anthony, who fought their entire lives for the right to vote and did not live to see it happen. Women like Lucy Burns and Alice Stone, whose incarceration and torture for the cause are documented in “Iron Jawed Angels.” Women like Victoria Woodhull and Shirley Chisholm, the first and second women to run for U.S. president.

These women were tougher and smarter than we know. Their praises remain largely unsung, as women’s history is too often a mere footnote in school textbooks. Like Hillary, these women stood up to abuse from bullies. Like Hillary, they were vilified by both men and women. Like Hillary, they were focused steadfastly on the seemingly unachievable goal of full personhood for all women. What they lacked in charisma, fortune or fame, they made up for in sheer determination.

So, for this moment, let the feminists of the world, the humanists of the world, women and men, honor this determined and persistent fighter. Let us remain determined in our fight to achieve full human rights for all women and men. As for the future: We will not mourn, we will organize.

Ann S. Freed is with the Hawaii Democratic Women’s Caucus and State Central Committee representative.