The Role of Misogyny in a Presidential Election
Hillary Clinton and Joe Biden on the 2016 campaign trail. Source.
TW: mentions of sexual assault
In January of 2020, speculation over conversation in which Senator Bernie Sanders allegedly told Senator Elizabeth Warren that a woman could not be elected in 2020, made national news. Whether or not the conversation actually occurred became a topic on the Democratic debate stage, and in the aftermath, supporters on both sides defended their candidate. Regardless of the truth of the claim, it brought a key question to the forefront of political conversations, could a woman beat President Trump in 2020?
Misogyny is and has always been a factor in the presidential election. A Sage Journal study on the perception of male and female candidates shows that women having ambition is a turnoff for American voters. Despite the many similarities between Hillary Clinton and Joe Biden in terms of ideology and political history, he is polling significantly better than she was four years ago. One could easily argue that his surge in polls is a direct result of nearly four years of living in Trump’s America, but it is worth pondering if the results of the 2016 election would have been different if Clinton were a man.
Hillary Clinton was not a flawless candidate by any means, but it is difficult to consider her outcomes without considering the role sexism played in her defeat. Countless studies show that politics are becoming more about morals, but Hillary Clinton was held to a higher moral standard than her male counterparts. The most notable sexist critique of Clinton was her response to President Clinton’s affair. Even Trump critiqued Clinton for her husband’s affair and her choice to stay with him, although it is difficult to imagine she would get any less criticism had she left her husband. Verbal critiques aside, Trump invited women that had previously accused Bill Clinton of sexual assault to sit in the V.I.P. box during one of his debates against Hillary. Certainly, no male candidate would have to answer for their partner’s indiscretion and allegations made against both presidential candidates this cycle prove that sexual misconduct is rarely even a dealbreaker for men.
Trump has an uncanny ability to assign an offensive nickname for any potential presidential contender, but his attacks on females have often latched onto offensive or unreal tropes, like “Crooked Hillary,” based on an email scandal with minimal proof and the notion that she would do anything to win, both of which severely discredited her “honesty” according to polls. The commotion surrounding Clinton’s emails overshadowed the countless false statements Trump made throughout his campaign, further proving that the standard of morality was higher for the female candidate.
Though she won the popular vote by 3 million votes in 2016, Clinton’s loss frequently overshadows a long list of her political successes. It is difficult to ignore that even with her extensive experience she still faced scrutiny about being knowledgeable enough to do the job. Even now, she receives criticism and hate for refusing to leave the political scene.
The Trump Administration has spent four years building a case against the DNC for being “too socialist” and the candidate chosen is an older, white, centrist man. Attacks like the ones against Clinton are notably absent against Biden and the Trump strategy is now to attack Harris. Sexism has already worked.
On this year, the 100th anniversary of White women getting the right to vote, the homage paid to powerful women at the DNC came with a bittersweet taste. There was a historically diverse pool of 2020 Democratic nominee hopefuls and this group of hopefuls is now working so hard to elect a straight, White, man to the office of President. The seemingly unshatterable glass sealing is holding on tight, and it is worth asking if Hillary’s failure instilled American voters with the idea that Biden was the only candidate that could beat Trump?