Women Say That Hillary Clinton and Sarah Palin Received Unfair Treatment in their Political Campaigns
Reader Comments
Palling aroung with terrorists
Obama did pall around with terrorists. Bill Ayers and his wife are terrorist. As far as knowledge she had one month to learn haer lines, Obama had two years to memorized his lines. women saw the bais. Six months and Palin would have been a wiz with her lines.
People will slowly become aware of had they were scammed by the corrupt media and Tv shows who were promoting Obama. For some reason they saw Palin as a thread. McCain was running for President not Palin.
Women Can Ride this Out and Learn From It
I see no reason for women to drive this into the ground and be so bitter about it. This was the first time a really viable female candidate appeared for either side, and they both made a pretty big impact.
Sarah Palin is definitely conservative enough and attractive enough to have appealed to that rather large segment of the population who shares her particular viewpoint. As it happens, there are simply more of us who do not. I really do not believe that all the positive press coverage in the world could have changed that. We all heard her answers to key questions. we all heard her accuse Barack Obama of "palling around with terrorists". For most people, she did not seem well informed, except in the limited areas she has had a prior interest in. She did not have a broad base of knowledge, and did not seem to think fast on her feet. She was good with the canned zingers, that was about it.
The Republican Party has some outstandingly qualified women they could get behind and groom for the presidency. If they insist on hitching their wagon to Palin's star, they won't make it to the top.
sexism? maybe but.....
My take is that they were both treated somewhat unfairly, but that's part of the game. All candidates are treated unfairly. That's a reality. Some of it may have been sexism, but most of it was political.
Hilary bore the cross of being a Clinton. The Clinton's have a love/hate relationship with the media and the American public. Either you love them or you hate them. No in between. Hilary made some gaffes and those that hate her destroyed her for it.
Palin came off as ultra conservative and most of the media are not ultra conservative. Many also felt that she was an unknown, so the first thing that people try to do is to destroy a prestine image. Another thing is Palin, wether by her own hand or direction of the campaign, gave the media plenty of foder to use against her.
So, gender did play a role, but no more than McCain's age, or Obama's race did on the coverage.
Joanna,
Yes women deserve a chance to succeed, but just like any man they should earn their success as men are not handed it on a silver platter. To tote sarah as a female leader, to call her someone capable of leading the country, and to give her that much respect is an outright insult to millions of other woman out there who have worked hard to become who they are (and this is why many women did not support her). The Palin pick for VP wasn't about picking a strong woman it was about picking ANY highly conservative woman as that was all thy thought was needed to get woman voters and hard right voters(a purely sexist pick). Clinton, Hutchinson, Snowe, and numerous other women were more than ready to try and lead this country; by comparison Sarah was clearly not qualified. Should women be rewarded for not being intelligent, and for not being capable? Should "respect" be based on their gender or should it be based on how capable they are? All people, men and women alike should be judged based on what they are capable of, and Sarah was clearly not capable of holding such a high office.
Lyle
"not THAT woman"... So where as men have george washington one of the greatest leaders of all time as their first president, woman should be satisfied with getting any woman no matter how foolish and ignorant they are? The women who can say "not THAT woman" understand that a fool like Sarah would only hurt the chances of other woman; she makes all the truly capable woman in the country look bad. Where as someone like hutchinson might tell young women that if you work hard then they can aspire to great things as much if not better then any man, Sarah gives off the message that you need to look pretty, and trust that your fellow women will blindly support you no matter what you do; success will be handed to you on a silver platter.
Really, we should be working towards EQUALITY not affirmative action. there was much sexism over Palin, both for and against her. When she was nominated the VP, most of the country had no idea who she was; she had no previous exposure on the national level (even mccain barely knew who she was)... and yet, without knowing anything about her, knowing nothing about who she was or what she had done, voters flocked and cheered for her. They didn't care about what she did, they only cared about her hard right conservatism, and her gender... In two months the polls that once supported her went negative, with the majority believing she was not qualified. obviously voters started to wake up, open their eyes, and realize that she was nothing like the many other prominent women out there.
If Sarah was a woman with TRUE leadership potential, she would have recognized her weaknesses, and would have declined the VP nomination. afterward she would take the next 4-12 years building herself, applying herself, and make herself into a strong leader... but no, she is just an opportunist; opportunity knocked and she was all too eager to open the door
Thank you! Thank you, for your thoughtful non partisan comments. I have felt this for a long time but have been unable to voice these very opinions because everytime I did I was knocked down and talked over. The left can be particularly brutal on this score.
Women women hating on women is terrible but a common fact. YOu have to give it to men black or white they stick together in a way women are incapable of which is sad when you try to evoke sisterhood. Maybe it's years of patriachy where we are taught to hate our own kind, I don't know?
Everything about the treatment of these women was horrible but most of all when Palin expressed how proud she was of being a feminist the snorts of disgust against her by so called official feminists was nasty personified. Imagine Obama being vilified for proclaiming he believed in equal rights for blacks?
I am still embarrassed
Why?
Why did women in both parties allow this type of abuse to happen to Sen. Clinton and Gov. Palin. Oh, it was women leading the charge against these two women.
I did not think that the media could get nastier than it did with Sen. Clinton until Gov. Palin was announce. The attacks were wrong, distasteful, and bias. The media set out to destroy these women careers to get the One elected. Until women stop beating up on other women we will never break the glass ceiling, rather it is a Democrat or Republicans. I like both women and I respect their courage.
I find the whole thing extremely embarrassing
Women Say That Hillary Clinton and Sarah Palin Received Unfair Treatment in their Political Campaigns - and so do men. We are incredibly unable to admit to our inherent culture of sexism (even the headline of this article hints at that). It was horrifying to see two of the most competent candidates for high public office this country has seen in recent history eviscerated for the color of their shoes, the cut of their wardrobe, and choice of cosmetics and accessories - and not just by the media, but by other women! This is why women remain subjugated to the lowest positions of status in our society and how sexism perpetrates itself - women are keeping themselves down with their "not THAT woman" rhetoric. Three times in this election, women were essentially betrayed - much like Jesus in the Garden of Gethsemane - and shown that they have no hope of achieving a leadership role in our nation's heritage: first, when Hillary Clinton - who, for all intents and purposes, was virtually declared the hands-down nominee and de facto President-elect long before the primary season even began - mysteriously lost the nomination to a much less qualified male candidate, second, when Hillary Clinton was mysteriously passed over (in part, due to the curious influence of another woman - Caroline Kennedy - on the selection committee) as Barack Obama's VP in favor of a much less popular Democratic figure, and third, as proof that rampant sexism was not simply a phenomenon within the liberal wing of the Democratic Party, the 'control' if you will, of presenting Sarah Palin, diametrically opposed to Clinton in every conceivable way, to the American public brought to the surface a level of mass hysteria on a scale I've never witnessed before in my life. If Barack Obama had been publicly vilified in the manner that Hillary Clinton and Sarah Palin were, we would have been thrown into a major social crisis. But instead, this publicly sanctioned bashing of 'women-as-women' became the witty repartee of dinner conversation. This election set the table for what several generations will regard as the roles of men and women in our society for years to come: first, that public leadership will remain very much a man's game (why can't Sarah just stay home with that baby of hers?), that white male supremacy has now become color-blind, and that, until the liberal establishment gets past its collective guilt for 250 years of slavery, women will continue to remain enslaved at the back of the bus, their destinies held in the hands of men.
Clinton and Palin treated unfairlly
Certainly Sen. Clinton and Gov. Palin were treated unfairly by the news media.From the moment McCain announced Palin as his VP pick she was attacked, her family trashed, her accomplishmens mocked. Gov. Palin worked her way through college, made her own path into government service and is a true reformer. She is a very capable governor yet she was slammed constantly by the media and cast as unqualified. The attacks were untrue and a distortion of her record. Even her appearance was attacked with the implication that if she was pretty she was dumb. This was all done to destroy her future political career. But like Sen. Clinton, Gov. Palin is strong and will carry on. The country lost out because Palin is honest and committed and would have worked to reform Washington. I hope she runs for president in 2012 and I hope she wins.
Mysoginy used as red meat
Both women were debased, insulted and slandered for the mere audacity of running against Obama - the establishment candidate.
This election also established that the purse for such a run is one billion dollars.
Women need not apply - I think this was the last opportunity to see a woman in the White House in my life time (and I don't mean those ironing Obama's shirts). Shame on all the women who participated in this hatefest - on either of the two candidate.
