"Clinton is running for president in a sexist culture that sees strong, capable women as suspect."

[DeepModem Mom]

Newsday: Hillary should play her gender card to the hilt
BY ROBIN GERBER
(Robin Gerber is senior faculty with the Gallup Organization and author of "Leadership the Eleanor Roosevelt Way" and the forthcoming novel "Eleanor vs. Ike.")
December 4, 2007

Sen. Hillary Clinton has a trust problem. Polls in Iowa and New Hampshire show that voters give her very low marks for being trustworthy and honest. The media and her opponents have built and reinforced the charge. But they're blaming the victim. Clinton is running for president in a sexist culture that persists in seeing strong, capable women as suspect. It's not that voters and her opponents think Clinton's experienced and competent, and they don't like or trust her. It's that they think she's experienced and competent and that's why they don't like or trust her.

A study earlier this year by Catalyst, a nonprofit business research organization, showed the stark dilemma that competent women face. In "The Double-bind Dilemma for Women in Leadership," women were criticized for being "too aggressive and self-promoting," but men with similar styles were praised for being direct. Women were forced to choose between competence and being liked and trusted by their colleagues, but leaders must have both to succeed. Stereotyed expectations about leadership styles led to conclusions that men were being assertive in the same situation where women were viewed as abrasive.

As the study concluded, "These perceptions not only influence whether people respect women's styles of leadership, but also the extent to which women leaders are perceived as trustworthy."...

***

As a presidential candidate, Clinton has held her know-how and experience up like a battle flag. But along with competence goes the ambition, assertiveness, even aggressiveness that she and other leaders bring to the tough job of leadership. And there's the rub. Dominance, authority and ambition are widely viewed as essential leadership characteristics -- as long as you're a man. When Clinton displays this "masculine" style, she loses the public trust.

What's a woman running for president to do? Pull the gender card out of the deck and hold it up high. Most people are unaware of their bias or don't want to recognize or acknowledge it. Clinton needs to challenge her opponents and voters with a simple test: Substitute "Henry" for "Hillary" and reassess his/her strengths and weaknesses. They may be surprised to find that the smart, competent, assertive, aggressive, ambitious "Henry" Clinton running for president seems like a very trustworthy man.

http://www.newsday.com/news/opinion/ny-opger045486775dec04,0,7259476.story

[Joe the Revelator]

1. So far doing so has made her sound like a lame whiner

instead of a strong candidate.

[Cameron27]

3. Your opinion.

[Joe the Revelator]

4. One that seems to be shared with a lot of voters

nt

[Hieronymus]

15. Exactly, a whiner. "The boys are picking on me."

[Writer]

17. Then the boys need to stop picking on her. n/t

[Hieronymus]

26. We need a tough candidate .. not one who is handled with kid gloves.

[Writer]

36. Yeah, I know... eight years of enduring the disgusting personal attacks of the GOP

while serving as First Lady shouldn't demonstrate enough political toughness, I suppose. How many "-gates" did the GOP pull out of their ass in order to harass her? Travelgate? White Watergate? Monicagate? Impeachment proceedings?

Or... are you assuming that she's not tough because she's a ...

oh, never mind. ;)

[marmar]

2. I agree that the culture is sexist and views strong women as threatening....

however, I don't think that's the total cause of Clinton's "trust" problem - the constant triangulation contributes mightily to that.
That said, even though she's not my top choice, I trust her enough to vote for her if she's nominated.

[Captain Hilts]

6. They're all triangulating on something. nt

[Captain Hilts]

38. People - men and women - inherently think women are more honest. Numerous studies...

that's why the tobacco lobby, pharma lobby, etc nearly always have women as their face to the public.

The standards of what depicts 'honesty' are higher for women than for men.

[Captain Hilts]

5. Sad, but true. A WP column and a Leonard Pitts column discuss this point:

First, there's this article:

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/11/11/AR2007111101204.html?nav=emailpage]

Wash Post: The Myth of the Iron Lady

The driving factor in the way women leaders are perceived, experiments show, is not that they are any more ruthless than men who get to the top, but that people have strong and often unconscious conceptions about men, women and the nature of leadership.


Experiments show that women vying for leadership roles are automatically assigned two labels. The first is to be seen as nice and warm, but incompetent; the second is to be seen as competent but unpleasant. Women stuck with Label A cannot be leaders, because the stereotype of leadership is incompatible with incompetence. Women who do become leaders get stuck with Label B, because if leadership is unconsciously associated with manliness, cognitive consistency requires that female leaders be stripped of the caring qualities normally associated with women.

Heilman proved that the reason people see a highly competent woman as less likable than a man with precisely the same qualifications is that such women are automatically perceived to have lost their feminine, caring side.

Then, there's this article from the Miami Herald:

http://www.miamiherald.com/living/columnists/leonard_pitts/story/310595.html]

Leonard Pitts column

Nancy Pelosi, Janet Reno, Condoleezza Rice, Madeleine Albright . . . I cannot see myself -- we are speaking metaphorically here -- cuddling up to any of them. They all seem formidable, off-putting, cold.


Which suggests the problem here is not so much them as me. And, if I may be so bold, we. As in, we seem unable to synthesize the idea that a woman can be smart, businesslike, demanding, capable, in charge, and yet also, warm.


Was Bill Clinton never brusque? Does Dick Cheney always say thank you and please?


But it's different, isn't it, because she's a woman? With the men, toughness reads as leadership, authority, getting things done. With her it reads as ''bitch.'' There is a sense -- and even women buy into this -- that a woman who climbs too high in male-dominated spheres violates something fundamental to our understanding of what it means to be a woman. Indeed, that she gives up any claim upon femininity itself.


We demand certain ''feminine'' traits from women -- nurturing, caring, submission -- and the woman in whom those traits are either not present or subordinated to her drive, ambition and competence will pay a social price.

[Tactical Progressive]

35. Good links on this, thanks.

And good summaries too.

[suston96]

7. My friend, Siggy Freud, just e-mailed me.....

....and he told me very brusquely, in that thick accent:

"People who hate Hillary no doubt hated their mothers....."

[Whisp]

8. if Henry voted for the Iraq war and all the suspect things

Hillary has backed up, I wouldn't trust him either.

[Think82]

9. The Clintons own Newsweek.

I have heard this before I read this article... Now, I'm beginning to think it may be true.

[sufrommich]

10. Do they own Newsday too?

[Think82]

27. Maybe both!

lol woops. I did hear this story from a credible guy working in Iowa right now.

[katty]

11. she whines too much & "billary" is getting real old,real fast

[Smarmie Doofus]

12. This is the only accurate passage in the entire article:

>>Sen. Hillary Clinton has a trust problem. Polls in Iowa and New Hampshire show that voters give her very low marks for being trustworthy and honest.>>

She has a trust problem because she's *un- TRUSTWORTHY*. The rest is a toxically dishonest admixture of wishful thinking and sour grapes.

Most of Clinton's critics in this party would support Boxer in a heartbeat. Why? Because Boxer has the very qualities that Clinton LACKS: honesty, integrity, leadership, *sincerity*.


Oh. And an interest in something outside of herself.

[katty]

13. Bingo!

[flyarm]

14. absolutely!,.i do not dislike Hillary because she is a woman i dislike her because ...

i do not trust her.

I see her as Bush lite.and that is not good enough for me.
I see her supporters behaving just like *hes supporters have..and that disgusts me.

fly

[FatDave]

25. Barbara Boxer for President!

I'm totally in! Where do I sign up?

Hilary...not so much.

[JTFrog]

30. That's it in a nutshell right there. n/t

[Tactical Progressive]

39. Hillary has shown FAR more honesty, integriy & sincerity than Obama

throughout this campaign.

And as far as leadership goes, saying you're a leader doesn't mean you're a leader. Obama is about Obama, and as near as I can tell, nothing else. Just vague allusions to 'change' and people 'hungry' for leadership.

The biggest surprise, and disappointment to me, is that Obama has turned out to be just another cheap hack looking out for number one. He is, in short, everything you just accused Hillary of being, none of which she is. Obama is a hollow man with alot of self-promotion. I'm kind of bummed that I didn't see it at the outset, but he's done more than enough to prove it a few times over at this point.

The Democratic party is going to take 30 years of solid, tough, brave and smart service that Hillary represents, over the empty, inexperienced, self-inflating Obama and his really nasty campaign.

[sandnsea]

16. Bill lied about opposing Iraq

Hillary lies about the IRG vote forcing Iran to give up their nuclear ambitions. Has nothing to do with gender. People don't trust her because the Clintons aren't trustworthy.

[Perry Logan]

29. No he didn't.

"Clinton Splits With Bush on Iraq," The Washington Post March 13, 2003

"Former president Bill Clinton, who has generally supported the Bush administration's Iraq policy in recent remarks, called on his successor yesterday to accept a more relaxed timeline in exchange for support from a majority of the United Nations Security Council members. ..he former president has publicly espoused an approach substantially different from the administration's public stance."

"Deadline for war - Give the inspectors more time, urges Clinton" The Daily Telegraph March 13, 2003 "Bill Clinton yesterday urged the Bush administration to give Hans Blix as much time as he wants to complete weapons inspections in Iraq. The former president broke ranks with his successor...Mr Clinton said war might yet be avoided if Saddam Hussein were given more time to disarm. "

"Clinton recommends U.S. patience on Iraq," Reuters, February 11, 2003. "Former U.S. President Bill Clinton said in an interview broadcast on Tuesday the United States should exercise patience in its standoff with Iraq to help build allied support for a potential strike."
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/david-fiderer/chris-matthews-rewrites-h_b_75089.html

[JTFrog]

31. I guess it depends on which quotes you look at.

Speech: Remarks at Tougaloo College Commencement

May 18, 2003
Jackson, MS

And I don’t think that makes America a very good model for rest of the world. We’ve got all these people putting their money overseas, avoiding basic income taxes, not paying, so we don’t have enough money for student loans, and scholarships, and things of that kind, and we’re going to quit looking into that and go bust these working people because one of them might have taken a dime he or she wasn’t entitled to. I don’t get it. And I don’t think its right. I supported the President when he asked the Congress for authority to stand up against weapons of mass destruction in Iraq. I have strongly supported the efforts in Afghanistan and I would be happy if they would send more troops there because that’s where the real problem is. But we cannot forever be strong abroad unless we’re getting better at home. Forming a more perfect union. There are things you’re supposed to do.

http://www.clintonfoundation.org/051803-sp-cf-gn-usa-sp-remarks-at-tougaloo-college-commencement.htm

September 12, 2002 (David Letterman Show):

Letterman asked, "Are we going into Iraq? Should we go into Iraq? I'd like to go in. I'd like to get the guy. I don't like the way the guy looks."

"He is a threat. He's a murderer and a thug," said Mr. Clinton. "There's no doubt we can do this. We're stronger; he's weaker. You're looking at a couple weeks of bombing and then I'd be astonished if this campaign took more than a week. Astonished."

http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2002/09/12/earlyshow/leisure/celebspot/main521789.shtml

June 23, 2004 (CNN):

"I have repeatedly defended President Bush against the left on Iraq, even though I think he should have waited until the U.N. inspections were over."

"That's why I supported the Iraq thing. There was a lot of stuff unaccounted for."

http://edition.cnn.com/2004/US/06/19/clinton.iraq/index.html

*edit to add the inevitably requested links.

[Perry Logan]

32. Especially if you're going to call one of your oown leaders a liar. Have a care, Clinton-haters.

[JTFrog]

33. I don't hate Bill.

Some of his policies sucked, most didn't. But I'm certainly not responsible for his reputation as not being completely honest. That started long before I started paying attention to politics.

"I did not have sexual relations with that woman..." :shrug:

I don't like the politics of triangulation nor the DLC pandering to corporate interests while human suffering increases at extraordinary rates in the world. Lump me into the "Clinton-hater" group if you must. Unfortunately, I understand all to well the need of Hillary's supporters to judge and classify anyone who is critical of a Clinton as someone inferior.

[rAVES]

18. OK so strong Women are threatening.. there's no problem so..

Shes a shill for big business, thats not strong.. just power hungry.

[Writer]

19. Isn't ANYONE running for president a little bit power hungry?

:shrug:

[rAVES]

21. Well yea, but like I said.. you need strenght too.. she bends to polls and Corporations..

[Writer]

22. I'd like to know who up there running doesn't bend to polls.

Are you telling me that a presidential candidate shouldn't listen to what people say in the form of a poll?

[rAVES]

23. Fine.. so your happy with a Pollster for president.. we have different standards.

I think the Crack Cocain issue in another thread just nails Hillary to a wall.. thats what your getting for POTUS.
The likes of Biden and Kucinich are just light years ahead of her, they have a direction and principles.

[Writer]

24. Whether it's Hillary, Biden, or Kucinich, I hope like hell they respond to polls...

lest they be like the narcissistic unilateralist currently in the White House.

[Azathoth]

20. Translation: If you think Hillary is dishonest, you're sexist

Because a powerful woman makes you insecure. The fact that Hillary has been talking out of both sides of her mouth for years is, of course, irrelevant.

[Major Hogwash]

28. Oh, wah! Boo hoo hoo. *sniff sniff* Even Bill thinks the media is mistreating her.

What really happened is that people actually sat up and paid attention to what she said and what she did.

Her vote for the Kyl-Lieberman resolution on Iran is coming back to bite her in the ass now.

No nuclear weapons program in 5 years, yet Hillary wants to attack Iran?

She's finished as a serious contender.

[Tactical Progressive]

34. It's a shitty stereotype, which Smear Merchant Obama has no problem using

That is the crux of this past week's 'kindergarten' conflagration. Obama smeared Hillary with the ambitious-woman-is-a-powerhungry-bitch slur. He thought he was being cute by doing it low-key, but he was pretty transparent. He also had to lie about his own self to do it. A smear and a lie. The real Obama.

Hillary's wry humor in response was perfect, but of course she has the Clinton-hating mainstream media twisters to deal with in addition to Obama's sliming. She's learning and getting better at it though. The main result was that Obama exposed himself further as a complete phony that flings his own dishonest poo around while pretending to be a high-road candidate. In fact he's showing himself as the dirtiest candidate in this election on either side of the aisle.

It goes well beyond Obama, of course, and far into the media, which is who Obama played to and what makes his nasty, misogynistic slur so shitty. It's just the kind of thing you think of at a Republican level, or maybe a media level, but not Democrats. We haven't seen a Democrat behave as ugly as Obama in I can't remember how long.

Women have it tough with this particular kind of misogyny and people like Obama who play on it.

[Captain Hilts]

37. Obama used the RNC talking points of the Clintons having a "20 year plan." nt