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Philadelphia • The faces of America's presidents flashed on the screen one at a time. All men, some with beards, some bald, one with dark skin. The camera then panned out to a collage of their portraits before the image shattered, revealing a smiling Hillary Clinton on the day she became the first U.S. woman to claim a major party's presidential nomination.

Live on video, Clinton said: "If there are any little girls out there who stayed up late to watch, let me just say, I may become the first woman president, but one of you is next."

That moment brought Josie Valdez, a Utah delegate, to tears, and even talking about it again Wednesday stirred up the same overwhelming emotions.

"What excitement, what a dream come true. Such opportunities are no longer being denied women," Valdez said. "For me, it is a combination of anger that it has taken so darn long and joy that it is finally here."

For a group of Utah's female delegates, watching Clinton win the nomination Tuesday felt both personal and historic on a global scale, the following generations of girls may never doubt they could grow up to hold the most powerful office in the world.

When Valdez was a young woman, she had those doubts. She was a 1970s feminist fighting for the never-enacted Equal Rights Amendment, but part of her wondered if she ever would see a female presidential nominee, let alone a woman president.

State Rep. Rebecca Chavez-Houck, D-Salt Lake City, thought of herself as a young girl watching the 1968 Democratic convention with her mother and thinking that being president was a job for which only men could apply.

"I'm just thinking out there that there are little girls who were just like me in 1968, that was 40 plus years ago, looking out there and watching and saying, 'Yeah that is a possibility because I see it,' " she said.

Some deride such identity politics, saying that voters should look at candidates' ideas and positions, not their skin color or gender.

But Sheila Raboy, a Utah delegate who is a veteran and a leader among the convention's gay contingent, said that ignores the impact role models have on young people.

"You can tell your daughters you can grow up to be anything, but if you don't see someone in that role, you don't believe," she said, noting President Barack Obama's importance in the African-American community.

Breanne Miller, the vice chairwoman of the Utah Democratic Party, was in elementary school when Bill Clinton became president, and she has no strong political memories of that period, but, like Valdez, when Hillary Clinton beamed onto the convention JumboTron on Tuesday, she couldn't hold back the tears.

"I support Hillary Clinton because of who she is and because she is a woman," said Miller, a superdelegate who announced her support for Clinton before Utah held its presidential caucus in March, which Sen. Bernie Sanders won with nearly 80 percent of the vote.

Miller has consistently noted Clinton's résumé as the first lady of Arkansas and then the United States, as a senator from New York and secretary of state, as a lawyer who worked on issues affecting women and children.

Miller sees Clinton's candidacy as a step toward a world with less sexism in which women get paid the same in the workplace, a major milestone in the long march to equality. She argues the historic nature of Clinton's campaign hasn't received the attention it deserves.

But one moment during the roll call showed just how far women have come in politics.

When it was Arizona's turn, 102-year-old Jerry Emmett announced 51 delegates for Clinton.

When Emmett was born, in 1914, women didn't have the right to vote.

Twitter: @mattcanham