Harvard: Young girls and their moms prefer male politicians

[WhiteTara]

http://www.washingtonexaminer.com/harvard-young-girls-and-their-moms-prefer-male-politicians/article/2585690

A new Harvard University report on sex bias in America, especially in politics, revealed a nugget that might explain some of the trouble Hillary Rodham Clinton is having with the female and youth vote: Many young girls and their moms prefer that males be in charge.

The Harvard Gazette report found that women continue to fight a glass ceiling, and are starting to drop out of the labor force. It cited an International Labor Association report that said while U.S. women are employed at high levels, "it has declined since 2000, from 70.7 percent down to 67.6 percent."

Looking for a potential reason for any bias, it referred to a recent Harvard study on teens and their parents and found that girls and boys and moms have a bias against women in power and politics, especially white girls.

"What we found is that not only teen boys, but many teen girls prefer male leaders in powerful professions, such as politics. Further, when it comes to leadership in general, many white teen girls appear to have biases against other white teen girls and some mothers appear to have biases against teen girls as well," said the report based on a survey of approximately 19,800 middle and high schools students.

[djean111]

1. So, the "of course all women will vote for Hillary" is another failed meme?

Here's the thing - failed meme or not, "mommy issues" or not, misogyny, or not - this was always a piss-poor thing to risk an presidential election on. Piss-poor assumption to start with, and piss-poor issue to hang a hat on. or a presidential election.

As a woman, I cannot support ANY candidate who is for war and fracking and the TPP, etc. So I was always just irritated by the of course you women will vote for Hillary bullshit.

Making this about gender was a huge mistake, it seems, on a couple of levels. But - Trump would beat Hillary, of that I have no doubt. So would Kasich. So would Romney.

[CountAllVotes]

2. and Sanders would beat Trump

That is why everyone must get on board and #FeelTheBern .

Critical time right now!!!

Dump de tRump!!!

[Blue_Adept]

3. That'll teach those pesky women to run for office

[djean111]

4. Bernie's supporters are constantly lectured on the importance of winning.

How come the importance of winning is "trumped", for some, by having a woman who is not all that popular, run for president? To make some fucking useless point?

Hillary was very up front about how she should be president because she is a woman. That is an invalid assumption. She, and her supporters, are saying the issues do not matter - since, it looks like to me, Hillary and Bernie disagree on many really important issues, like war and fracking, etc. What a mess.

[Blue_Adept]

6. While this IS gdp, I made no mention of Hillary

Because, as the next person below said, this will take decades to fix.

So while I may not be in her corner (at the moment), I'm glad she's running because it does help to change the dynamic slowly but surely about women in power in this country, which is abysmal.

[flamingdem]

5. This will take decades to change

and it's likely not to change much due to cultural programming.

I hope Hillary wins in November and I will fully support her. The payoff will be a woman winning against Yuuge odds. I'm a Bernie supporter but know this might be the only chance to see a woman elected to Potus in my lifetime. In some ways her willingness to be aggressive in foreign policy is the reason she's even had a chance. But that's precisely what I find difficult to support.

The double standard is clear. I don't remember Obama getting criticized for schmoozing with wealthy donors, for instance.

[Maru Kitteh]

7. "The double standard is clear. I don't remember Obama getting criticized for schmoozing with wealthy

donors, for instance."

THANKYOU.

[Herman4747]

26. The key word is "donor" here...

Obama met with Wall Street donors to his campaign.
Hillary, on the other hand, was paid (that is, she receives all the money) for speeches to Goldman Sachs (& others) whose content she keeps hidden (she has something to hide)

[21st Century Poet]

28. Maybe Obama should have been criticised more.

Mr Obama seemed to offer a post racial society. Everybody was ready to overlook Mr Obama's faults because of that. The excitement that the 2008 election brought about was off the charts. Everything else became secondary to the post racial society ideal. It felt like America repenting for its sins.

Mr Obama has turned out to be a good president who will leave a decent legacy behind him but, in retrospect, I think he should have been criticised more about some issues. Maybe there was too much fawning and people falling for his (admittedly undeniable and almost irresistible) charm.

[ananda]

8. And of course this has nothing to do with Sanders ...

... having the much better people-first message and policy.

Sheesh.

[WhiteTara]

11. If following the thread of the story

there is a daddy will take care of me element.

[CBGLuthier]

9. Is there instead maybe a bias towards honesty and progressiveness?

Because that is the reason my two daughters, my wife, and myself support Sanders. Not some bullshit about wanting a man in charge.

Wonder how much the Clinton camp paid for this study.

[pnwmom]

10. DUH! Girls and their mothers are as much a product of sexist culture as men and boys.

They've all been raised in this sexist stew.

Young girls and their mothers, just like boys and their fathers, are USED to see men as leaders.They have been trained from early childhood to view women as the subordinates.

And that is another thing that having a woman as President will help to change.

[davidn3600]

18. It's largely religion

The major Abrahamic religions are VERY patriarchal and have enormous impact on social leadership and organization. Religion is used to define everything from leadership to morals to the entire family unit. Notice how Christians and Muslims both keep women completely shut out of leadership roles in religious institutions. That'll be a far more difficult ceiling to crack. Even an atheist is brought up in the same environment and ends up adopting many of the same standards whether they realize it or not.

But I'm not sure having a female leader will have as much effect as you think it will. Angela Merkel has been a leader in Germany (and arguably the most powerful woman in Europe) for over a decade and it hasn't made much dent in the patriarchy there. Even history shows simply having a female leader has very little effect or difference.
Hillary is also highly divisive. Half the country's women don't like her already. I don't see Hillary mending what has obviously become a very fractured feminist movement.

Girls also need more than just political role models. They need cultural and social role models. Boys have tons of them from coaches/teachers, to church leaders, business leaders, scientists, soldiers, to even sports athletes or fictional characters in comic books. These people push boys to achieve and be motivated and confident and lead. Girls have very few of these type of role models and leaders to push them in the cultural aspects. Hillary herself isn't likely to have much effect in this regard. Her being elected president only proves that a woman can reach greatness as long as she has a politically-active husband with long coat-tails, goes to a big school, and has lots of money.

[pnwmom]

19. Right. It was all Bill's coattails. Let's entirely disregard the facts

that she was the first student EVER in Wellesley's history that they asked to address the students at graduation; that she was in the first tiny class of women EVER admitted to Yale law school; that she could have virtually written her ticket for a job in a major city corporate law firm but instead she took her first job at the Children's Defense Fund.

And then she decided to partner in marriage with Bill Clinton and she was, by far, the major family breadwinner for years. (His job as governor paid $32K a year.) How do you know he would have been as successful as he was without her help at critical points?

Of course we need even more women in leadership at all levels. We only have 20% women in the Senate, for example. But we don't need you mansplaining about why women and girls won't benefit from having a woman President.

They need cultural and social role models. Boys have tons of them from coaches/teachers, to church leaders, business leaders, scientists, soldiers, to even sports athletes or fictional characters in comic books. These people push boys to achieve and be motivated and confident and lead. Girls have very few of these type of role models and leaders to push them in the cultural aspects.

What a huge blind spot you have.

[davidn3600]

20. Ok...name them

Name those female role models in social and cultural leadership positions that are so plentiful. You should have a good list if there are so many. And no, politicians don't count. I'm talking social and cultural leaders, not the political realm.

It's not a blind spot...it's history.
Having a female leader of a nation is not some big new thing to the world. That ceiling was blasted through in ancient Egypt. But when you look at history...how many female leaders actually shifted their social and cultural beliefs towards women? None. The patriarchy held firm. Same thing will happen with Hillary.

Has having a black president helped race relations in America? Most would say absolutely not. It hasn't helped. We still have cops killing blacks in the streets with no fear from the government.

It's the old saying....the more things change, the more they stay the same.

[pnwmom]

22. Can you be more insulting? You said:

They need cultural and social role models. Boys have tons of them from coaches/teachers, to church leaders, business leaders, scientists, soldiers, to even sports athletes or fictional characters in comic books. These people push boys to achieve and be motivated and confident and lead.

And then you challenged me to name them.

Look around you. Women are coaches/teachers, church leaders, business leaders, etc.

Haven't you noticed that more women than men are graduating from college these days? In large part it's because of the encouragement they're getting from these women role models.

But there aren't enough women in the top of political leadership. And the fact that that glass ceiling has been broken in many more advanced and less sexist countries around the world doesn't mean it's been broken here.

Having a black President exposed the underlying racism that still exists in the US -- it hasn't worsened it. I would strongly argue that we have ADVANCED however, because it is important to acknowledge this racism in order to do anything about it. Without President Obama it wouldn't be as crystal clear as it is that economic equality isn't enough; that black people are discriminated against for being black no matter how high they rise in our society.

And now BLM is a major issue in a Presidential campaign, as it has not been for decades. So, yes, having a black President HAS helped racial relations in America. It has ripped off a scab and exposed the festering sore underneath. But that step is necessary in the long term healing process.

[davidn3600]

24. More women than men are graduating college, but is the wage gap changing?

Nope.

Has it changed how many Fortune 500 CEOs are women? Nope. In fact, there are less female CEOs today than a decade ago.

Look at this study in the OP...women prefer men in positions of power. How do you think you are ever going to reach equality if women think that way? As long as society holds that belief, you will never reach equality in a million years.

It's not a simple numbers game. Look at Sweden who has women making up nearly half it's legislative branch. Guess what....their gender wage gap is EXACTLY the same as ours! And their rate of sexual assault is actually higher.

[pnwmom]

29. In 1963 women only made 59% of what men make. Now it's 77%.

So the wage gap is changing. Just not fast enough.

Women are used to seeing men in power because men have always been in power, and women are also affected by the sexism that permeates our culture.

But having a woman President will help to chip away at that. It won't work miracles but it will help -- just as President Obama has been a role model to millions of black youth, Hillary will be to young women and girls.

[Brickbat]

12. This is a shameful misrepresentation of the Harvard Gazette article written in such a way to make it

political. But then, it's the Washington Examiner, so what do you expect? Surprised to see it here, I guess. Or maybe not.

[WhiteTara]

13. I'd love to see the actual article

do you have a link?

[Brickbat]

14. It's in the article you posted.

[WhiteTara]

15. Thanks. I didn't reread for that.

[Orrex]

16. Trump is counting on the "young girls" voting bloc

[bemildred]

17. Sounds like some form of bullshit. nt

[Iggo]

21. K&R, but here's the actual study. Way better than the article about the article about the study.

http://mcc.gse.harvard.edu/files/gse-mcc/files/leanout-report.pdf?m=1448058138

[WhiteTara]

23. here's the take away

Yet when asked explicitly who they prefer as political
leaders, 23% of girls preferred males while only 8% of
girls preferred females, with 69% of girls reporting no
preference. Girls expressed no significant preference for
males or females as business leaders.

Girls were more likely to view females as better leaders
than males in traditionally female professions, such
as child care directors, health care directors, and art
directors. Fully 49% of girls saw girls as more capable
child care directors while only three girls (which rounds to
0%) reported that males were better child care directors.
Boys were more likely to report both that males were
better leaders overall and in powerful professions.

Forty percent of boys preferred male to female political
leaders and only 4% preferred female political leaders
with 56% expressing no preference. That a significantly
higher percentage of both boys and girls prefer male
political leaders can clearly matter a great deal in
political elections at every level, which are often won by
small margins.

[Iggo]

25. I should've said "...and here's a link to the study."

"...but here's the actual study" sounds more confrontational than I meant it to be.

Sorry about that.

[WhiteTara]

27. appreciated the entire article

no confrontation here.