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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

Linda Clark
Thanks Ms. Dee! Frank Peterson, based on his posts, is a respectful man. His contributions to this site are greatly appreciated!
By Linda Clark on 05/21/2008 11:38 am
Deni G
We love you Frank Oh yes we do…. la lalal la we love it when we see you you make us laugh and dance and smile but that other guy… even though I strain my eye he is tiny he is so small I need a magnifying glass and a tweezers to see him at all! and that’s the truth!
By Deni G on 05/21/2008 12:27 pm
Frannie Em
Deni What are you up to? ROFLMAO . what a nut
By Frannie Em on 05/21/2008 12:46 pm
Deni G
What am I up to? well haha haha nothing intelligent.
By Deni G on 05/21/2008 1:13 pm
Frank Peterson
Are you smoking a doobie, Deni” lmao
By Frank Peterson on 05/21/2008 5:13 pm
Frank Peterson
Or is that just a natural high? lol Thanks much ladies and Deni—love the poem :-)
By Frank Peterson on 05/21/2008 5:17 pm
Deni G
Why no Frank… I am a natural born space cadet!
By Deni G on 05/21/2008 5:22 pm
Frank Peterson
roflmao- Deni Dear—you certainly are and it’s a great pleasure to know you—yes indeedy I myself applied to the club long ago and have an active dancing member ever since lol
By Frank Peterson on 05/21/2008 5:40 pm
Deni G
oh I am laughing now!! Lily you are so funny!
By Deni G on 05/21/2008 6:29 pm
Frank Peterson
Ms Dee—you’re right—when you are in a relationship in which both partners are equal them you have true love. Being pussy-whipped is domination and is abhorrent to every thing I believe about my Anne and me. We were equals—for 30 years—we had a lovely daughter who makes sure the old man is taking care of himself and eats properly—she’s more Anne than I. I suppose our love affair- marriage, for it was both, is fairly common—and among our friends we saw many like us. So it’s not rare by any means. It’s about respect and compassion and caring, about Eros and Agape. To have that is incredibly beautiful and I am truly blessed to have known Anne and to have been by her side for as long as I did. Every minute was special. Not that we didn’t have “discussions”—probably as many as most married couples but we always resolved them before we went to sleep—we saw no sense in holding things over the night and into the next day. We met in in the midst of a war, she a nurse and I a medic and I thought then I had fallen into a dream—I still do—and what a dram it was. It’s one that will last me always—she never ages, she never fades, she really never dies—and she is my heroine for all time.
By Frank Peterson on 05/21/2008 5:57 pm
Ms. Dee
Ann was one lucky woman, Frank.
By Ms. Dee on 05/21/2008 7:10 pm
Frank Peterson
Maybe, Ms Dee but I sure as hell was.
By Frank Peterson on 05/21/2008 7:37 pm
Linda Clark
Geez …..eeegads Dr. Klein! Bare with me for a moment, as I attempt to digest your most recent disrespectful comment. I am usually respectful of other’s comments when I don’t agree, but you are, in my view, incredibly arrogant and condescending! A man whom is a respectful “human being” would not consider himself to be “p——whipped”.
By Linda Clark on 05/21/2008 11:32 am
Lady Gator
Dr. Mark…….The Ladies —-blah blah blah——-My sweet mama used to tell me — ‘Sweetie, if it has tires or testicles, you’re gonna have trouble with it’.
By Lady Gator on 05/21/2008 11:54 am
Linda Clark
Oh Lady Gator ……….. I’m in complete agreement! My tire/testicle gauge is an acute sense of humor and my brain!
By Linda Clark on 05/21/2008 11:58 am