In past speeches, Hillary Clinton talked of figurative glass ceiling, not literal glass dome

Clips from two speeches by former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton appear in a video circulating social media as evidence that Earth is flat and humans live under a glass dome. 

In the first speech, from June 2008, when Clinton conceded the Democratic presidential nomination to former President Barack Obama, she said: "Although we weren’t able to shatter that highest, hardest glass ceiling this time, thanks to you, it’s got about 18 million cracks in it." 

In the second speech, from June 2016, after Clinton clinched that Democratic presidential nomination, she said: "It may be hard to see tonight, but we are all standing under a glass ceiling right now."

"Hilary Clinton mentions the Glass Dome Firmament," reads text flanking the video in an April 2 Instagram post, misspelling Clinton’s first name.

"Hilary Clinton knows we live under a glass dome," the post says, using hashtags connected to unfounded conspiracy theories like #fakemoonlanding #spaceisfake and #flatearth.

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First, some helpful background for those unacquainted with flat Earth-speak. Some people who believe that the Earth is flat think it’s under a dome. In a 2020 interview with Scientific American, Michael Marshall, project director of the Good Thinking Society, a United Kingdom-based charity that aims "to promote science to challenge pseudoscience," said the idea that the Earth is a disc housed under a dome "goes back to the biblical idea of the firmament from and being the roof on top of the world." 

But it’s clear from the context of these video clips that Clinton isn’t suggesting Earth is flat, or discussing a glass dome. She’s alluding to challenges women face, often in their professional lives. 

The phrase "glass ceiling" was first used by workplace advocate Marilyn Loden at a women’s business conference in 1978, and it became a metaphor for the struggles women encounter as they try to progress in their careers.

Loden spoke about how her company had tapped her to explore why more women weren’t entering management positions, The Washington Post reported in 2018, and "she had gathered enough data that she felt confident the problem extended beyond what her colleagues were wearing or saying."

The paper quoted Loden saying that "it seemed to me there was an invisible barrier to advancement that people didn't recognize" — the ’glass ceiling.’"  

We previously fact-checked another claim that Clinton was discussing a glass dome over Earth iwhen she conceded the 2016 presidential election to former President Donald Trump. She was, of course, still referring to the "glass ceiling" women encounter in society. 

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