Despite Clinton's defeat, women in politics are on the rise

NEW YORK (FOX 5 NEWS) - Ever since Hillary Clinton lost and Donald Trump won the presidential election, political groups all over the country that train and back women candidates have seen an increase in interest. Although Clinton failed to shatter the ultimate glass ceiling, her defeat seems to have inspired other women to see higher office.

Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand hosted a town hall in Queens Monday afternoon. She is one of many female politicians who have been working to raise their profile since Trump's election. The junior senator from New York is seen as a rising star in the Democratic Party. She helped block the repeal of the Affordable Care Act.

"We were able to defeat that horrible Senate Republican health care bill," she said at the town hall. "And it truly was horrible."

As recently as May, Gillibrand publically declared she is not running for president in 2020. She insisted that she is focused on serving the people of New York.

But that doesn't stop the speculation.

"Senator Gillibrand has a very high profile here in New York but you're going to have to raise it beyond the state," Chris Hahn, a political analyst, told Fox 5.

Since Clinton's defeat, the push for women to emerge on the national stage has only intensified. And not just among Democrats. Friday night, two of the three Republican senators who defied party leadership by voting against health care repeal were women: Sen. Lisa Murkowski of Alaska and Sen. Susan Collins of Maine.

"The role that Murkowski and Collins played last week says a lot about the future of women in power in this country standing up to men often who may or may not understand the issues that women are facing," Hahn said. "[Women are] over 50 percent of our population, so I think that it's high time we have a female president, whether that comes from the left or the right, I'm all for it."

Other women on the rise to watch include Sen. Kamala Harris, a California Democrat, and Republican Nikki Haley, the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations. Both are considered contenders for even higher office.