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Conversation | 05/21/2008 8:35 am

Percentage of Voters Say They Would Never Vote for a Woman, Regardless of Qualifications

© AP

Editor’s Note: Featuring Kathleen Jamieson, director of the Annenberg Public Policy Center, a professor of communications and the former dean of the Annenberg School for Communication at the University of Pennsylvania.

LESLEY: Well, what about sexism? Yeah, let’s talk about the second “ism.”

LIZ: Can I say something?

LESLEY: Please.

Click here to read Part One: At a Table in So-Called Liberal NYC, Woman Announces: I’ll Never Vote for a Black Man for President.

Click here to read Part Three: Who Says Older Ages Equal Serious Health Problems?

LIZ: I want to preface my remarks now by saying I’ve always been a really lousy feminist and Gloria Steinem once said that I was the worst because, she said, “Liz, you want to be the only Jew in the club.” And so I got the message then. I tried to repent. But now sexism is coming late to this discussion. I think it’s probably too late. And I think the sexists mostly all say they just don’t like Hillary. But they don’t have anything against women in office. I think if you look at the statistics, 13 percent of voters say they would never vote for a woman no matter how qualified she was. And our friend Cynthia McFadden spoke this weekend at Bryn Mawr and she said the world economic forum in Davos assessed gender equality in 93 percent of the world population, and the United States dropped from 23rd on the list in 2006 to 31st in 2007. So only 13 percent of Congress is female. Women make 77 cents for every dollar men make. I just think sexism is really alive in this world. And The New York Times had a wonderful piece in the magazine Sunday, by Peggy Orenstein, discussing this.

LESLEY: You know what’s really interesting to me? That this bubbles up at a time when Hillary Clinton won virtually half the primary votes, from lots and lots of white men, who essentially were saying they could see her as a commander-in-chief. She raised a whole lot of money; people said women would never be able to raise a whole lot of money. I mean, there is some kind of disconnect here.

LIZ: Yeah. Well, I think these discussions are too late to be of any use to her. But it all leads back to us being reminded that black men were given the right to vote in America 50 years before women received it. So nothing much has changed.

KATHLEEN: But it’s got to be possible in this kind of discussion to say that Hillary Clinton’s campaign was not the campaign that could have been waged on her behalf — there are failures in the campaign. There were failures in its assumptions about how to deal with the caucuses. One can’t say that Clinton’s candidacy faltered because of sexism; one can say that — gender and race out of the equation — tactically the Obama campaign ran a much better campaign. It figured out how to get the advantage of higher numbers of delegates in caucus states. It figured out how to go to those districts that had essentially more votes; more capacity to produce delegate strength. And it concentrated there, while the Clinton campaign was off in those areas — that had less capacity to generate the delegates — with the same amount of effort. And the Obama campaign figured out how to raise money. So, I think that sex and race are at play this year and I think that they are playing in ways that are both obvious and subtle. But, there are also all the other dynamics that come into play when campaigns do well and do poorly, regardless of race and gender.

To another point on this subject, the amount of sexism on the Internet is just appalling. And that young people will put their own names and their own identities up on space on the Internet, such as Facebook, attached to demeaning comments about women in general and Hillary Clinton in particular. And then when someone comes onto the site to object, that person will be subject to what we would call ad staminem rather than ad hominem. We should find attacks that are vulgar in the extreme disturbing, regardless of whether or not we are Hillary Clinton supporters.


LESLEY: So the idea that racism is a taboo, but sexism is fine, is alive and well on the Internet?

KATHLEEN: I believe that sexism is alive and well on the Internet. And the productive piece is that recently, after Tina Fey’s segment on "Saturday Night Live," a couple of groups have emerged to try to fight what they see as misogyny on the Internet and misogyny in mainstream broadcast.

LESLEY: And when you say on "Saturday Night Live," what misogynist —

KATHLEEN: Tina Fey. When Tina Fey went on with the segment that concludes that “bitch” is the new black, a site emerges on the web that basically plays out of that segment and produces commentary about it. And a second site emerges as well which basically takes on the concept that these sorts of attacks in broadcast and on the web, against Hillary Clinton but on misogynistic grounds, are inappropriate.

269 Reader Comments (so far…) Sign In or Register to comment

Mugsy Peabody
I don’t THINK so…. And you can quote me on this - I have long said Rep. Pelosi will be our first woman President.
By Mugsy Peabody on 05/21/2008 6:15 pm
Margo Porter
Well said. I do wonder why it is that other countries with their own share of mysonginistic tendencies manage to elect women to lead the nation and we can’t seem to do so in the U.S. There is sexism in Panama, Germany, U.K. Pakistan, etc. Some of these countries are even more committed to their female stereo-types than we claim to be. These countries and a few in Africa have elected women as leaders currently or in the past. We haven’t even had a female V.P. We can’t even imagine having a woman lead the nation if the white guy dies! Why is that? I have a theory that isn’t particularly pleasant. We women are looking for “subjective perfection”. We don’t always think about supporting the candidate despite their failings. We want an idol. It’s possible that if Hillary were the nominee she would still not win because some women would have to quibble about her marital decisions. That doesn’t say much about the sisterhood.
By Margo Porter on 05/21/2008 2:30 pm
Kay Sara
Margo, This country excells at hypocrisy. We have this wonderful constitution that everyone knows that they need to verbally extol. That constitution is the “proof” we have of our moral superiority towards all people so if our actions fall short we are not able to be accused of human rights violations. And our actions ido not have to demonstrate equality because our constitution does it for us.
By Kay Sara on 05/21/2008 4:57 pm
Willow K
Good point Margo. Chile elected Michelle Bachelet in 2006, she is a single mom of three, one child conceived out of wedlock (or if she were technically still married to someone who was not her husband), and identifies as an agnostic. Can you imagine the U.S. electing an agnostic single mom who had extra-marital relationships? I can’t, not in the foreseeable future. Hillary makes me realize we could elect a woman president, but I think she had to try so hard to ‘overcome’ being female that she came across as inauthentic to many voters. Plus of course the historic Clinton baggage. I do think sexism is alive and well, and both men and women can be sexist. But I don’t believe sexism sunk Hillary, I think rather the phenomenon of Obama combined with campaign miscues and missteps did her in.
By Willow K on 05/21/2008 7:23 pm
Paula Ann Lintz
One major reason other countries, and mainly European countries, are used to having a Female as the head of their country….I believe they are called ‘QUEENS’. So naturally they can deal much more easily with a Female as the head of their elected government. We here in the USA do not have ‘Queens’ here, unless, of course, you consider the male kind.
By Paula Ann Lintz on 05/23/2008 1:06 pm
Kay Sara
Teresa, beautifully said! My hope is that Hillary will not let this sexism alone after this race. Too many women’s reactions to sexism is to quit, walk away, ignore it, minimize its impact or rationalize it as something other than discrimination or that it happens everywhere so accept it. None of these reactions should be acceptable or encouraged because they will not fix the hatred and discrimination of women. Those reactions are the easy ways out. Hopefully Hillary’s unwillingness to be pushed out, aside or shut up will encourage other women to stand their ground as well. This treatment is not okay and women who allow such treatment or defend such treatment are not okay either.
By Kay Sara on 05/21/2008 4:49 pm
Joye Jarvis
Talk about sexism, we do it to each other daily. We use Negative Sexist terms, and allow them to be used. Women could help improve the image of women around the world by calling attention to the negative word images we hear every day. Most negative words we hear have a female connotation. Bitch, Whore, etc. When men want to run each other down, they use female terms like sissy and a lot worse. Women even do it when they refer to each other. Just listen and see how many you hear each day. Women will think a lot more of them selves, if they stop using and allowing others to use these negative terms, in their presence.
By Joye Jarvis on 05/27/2008 3:05 pm
Jenny Oops
Teresa’s right, sexism does still reign. As well, somethings going on out there. Has anybody else noticed the new longer, curly hair styles for women, even on CNN, shades of Scarlett O’Hara, and the cute little blouses with puffed sleeves and peplins on blouses and and two piece dresses. AND, have you gotten a load of the new summer dresses. YUK! Looks like housewife dresses of the 30s. Somethings going on out there in this here our country, ladies. Feels like back to the kitchen, pregnant and barefoot to me. Our society has simply not yet come to a balance between the hes and the shes. I hope we can do that at some point along the near future way, but not sure.
By Jenny Oops on 06/14/2008 5:18 am
Buh- Bye
One word. “Sweetie.”
By Buh- Bye on 05/20/2008 4:36 pm
Star Lawrence
You made me chuckly grimly. Thanks, I needed that!
By Star Lawrence on 05/21/2008 11:37 am
Star Lawrence
You made me chuckle, albeit grimly. Thanks! Sure, a lot of this anti-woman stuff is coming from women…I guess the other candidate likes women “well enough,” despite his offhand and patronizing endearments to people he doesn’t know. I have seen a lot of mean stuff against Pelosi, too, coming from women. Usually men aren’t so open…at least we womenfolk have scared them to that extent!
By Star Lawrence on 05/21/2008 11:41 am
Marjorie C.
There ya go !! Until women understand the meaning of solidarity, we will always be Sweeties. I am surprised to watch someone like Nancy Pelosi lean towards Obama. When all things are equal, women should support other women — much the same way as men support other men.
By Marjorie C. on 05/21/2008 12:16 pm
Margo Porter
Well said. I do wonder why it is that other countries with their own share of mysonginistic tendencies manage to elect women to lead the nation and we can’t seem to do so in the U.S. There is sexism in Panama, Germany, U.K. Pakistan, etc. Some of these countries are even more committed to their female stereo-types than we claim to be. These countries and a few in Africa have elected women as leaders currently or in the past. We haven’t even had a female V.P. We can’t even imagine having a woman lead the nation if the white guy dies! Why is that? I have a theory that isn’t particularly pleasant. We women are looking for “subjective perfection”. We don’t always think about supporting the candidate despite their failings. We want an idol. It’s possible that if Hillary were the nominee she would still not win because some women would have to quibble about her marital decisions. That doesn’t say much about the sisterhood.
By Margo Porter on 05/21/2008 2:36 pm
Kitty Webb
I don’t understand why people are getting so upset about Obama’s use of the word “Sweetie.” I am a feminist and I address people as “Sweetie” frequently - both women and men - and I have never noticed that anyone is offended by it. I work in the entertainment business, where many people address each other as “Darling” and no one is offended by that, either. With all respect, I really do believe we have bigger battles to fight, as women and as people.
By Kitty Webb on 05/21/2008 12:17 pm
Mugsy Peabody
It’s simple. He called a woman reporter who was in his space in her professional capacity “Sweetie.” She was, presumably, not his “Sweetie,” or that would be a somewhat bigger story than his use of a term which was entirely inappropriate to the situation. He used it, most probably, because he didn’t know her name. The parallel would be her saying to him, “Hey, Boy!” as white people used to do to blacks. The other parallel is the fool in the White House giving an invited shoulder rub to German Chancellor Angela Merkel at the G-8 Summit in 2006. Being treated with dignity and respect, as a professional, in a professional setting, is a very very big battle, Kitty.
By Mugsy Peabody on 05/21/2008 1:00 pm