Women Say That Hillary Clinton and Sarah Palin Received Unfair Treatment in their Political Campaigns

Women say female candidates are held to different standards on the campaign trail, but believe Hillary Clinton's and Sarah Palin's runs were a dramatic step forward toward electing a female president.

Sen. Hillary Clinton greeted campaign supporters in Puerto Rico at a primary night party.

But that's enough already about their clothing.

Those were among key findings of a national poll of women, both voters and nonvoters. Sixty-five percent of women—majorities in every demographic and political group—said that male and female candidates are held to different standards on the campaign trail, the poll found. Just 29 percent thought expectations are the same. 

A robust 93 percent said the candidacies of Clinton and Palin should encourage more women to run for office. Eighty-six percent said the young girls and women in their own lives would be more likely to take an interest in politics thanks to Clinton and Palin.

Women, though, complained that news coverage went overboard with respect to the fashion choices of the two high-profile candidates. Seventy-nine percent said that was true in the case of Palin, who took heat for her high-end designer wardrobe, though only 44 percent said that applied to the pants-suit-loving Clinton.

Other highlights:

When asked which issue should be the key matter of concern for the incoming Barack Obama administration, 71 percent said that the economy should be No. 1. All other issues, including education, Iraq, and healthcare, were in single digits.

As for the next first lady, 49 percent want Michelle Obama to get involved in a few issues and 38 percent said she should focus on being a wife and mother. Here a partisan split emerged: Fifty-three percent of Republican women think she should be Mrs. Obama and a mom first, compared with 41 percent of independent women and only 1 in 4 Democrats.

As for cabinet appointments, 67 percent of women said that Obama should not consider gender at all when appointing his cabinet and should focus just on qualifications; 27 percent said he should try to appoint an equal number of women and men.

As for Clinton's nomination to be the next secretary of state, 71 percent were for it (51 percent definitely, 20 percent somewhat).

It was thumbs down for the news media, especially with respect to Palin, the first woman ever to grace a GOP presidential ticket. When asked to compare Palin and Clinton to the other candidates running for office, 64 percent of women thought the coverage of Palin was more negative than that of other hopefuls. Thirty-one percent of women said that Clinton's coverage was relatively more negative, more than double the 14 percent who said the coverage was more positive.

The telephone poll of 600 women was conducted November 21-24. Findings were released Wednesday. The poll was conducted on behalf of Lifetime Networks by Republican pollster Kellyanne Conway and Democratic pollster Celinda Lake. The margin of error was plus or minus 4.4 percent.

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