CBS News – October 25, 2016
Hillary Clinton is not shying away from dealing her Republican challenger the “woman card” as she pulls ahead in the polls, joining a group of women lawmakers to rally around women’s rights and to speak out against Trump. At the start of the presidential campaign, Hilary Clinton was reluctant to draw too much attention to her gender, to imply that people should vote for her because she is a woman.
Ana Stevenson, Conversation US – August 21, 2016
Just as Australian journalists derided Gillard for supposedly “playing the gender card”, Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump has accused Clinton – his opponent in November – of playing the “woman’s card”. This can be contextualised in terms of the feminist theory of post-feminism. When male politicians speak of women in such ways, they normalise masculinity while foregrounding the supposed insignificance of gender. This renders gender absolutely central to political debate.
Jill Lepore, New York Magazine – June 20, 2016
“It means freedom for women to vote against the party this donkey represents” read the sign on a donkey named Woodrow who, wearing a bow, was paraded through Denver by the National Woman’s Party during its campaign against the Democratic incumbent, President Wilson, in 1916. This year, the hundredth anniversary of the Woman’s Party arrived, unnoticed, on June 5th. Two days later, Hillary Clinton became the first woman to claim the Presidential nomination of a major party: the Democratic Party.
Jonathan Allen, Roll Call – June 13, 2016
For years, Hillary Clinton’s closest friends said that she would be better positioned to win the presidency if she embraced the historic nature of her candidacy, rather than playing it down just because the pantheon of American presidents has always been a men’s club.
Politico – June 9, 2016
On Tuesday Clinton became the first woman in history to be the presumptive presidential nominee of one of the two major parties. As she faces off against a competitor who has been frequently accused of misogyny and has a much publicized past with women, Politico Magazine decided to ask a group of leading female policy wonks, political minds and opinion influencers: Just how should Hillary Clinton play the “woman card” in 2016? Some think she needs to address better work-family policies, but be sure to include men in the conversation, too. Others think she needs to let Trump’s comments speak for themselves. And some were quick to dismiss the idea entirely, because, as one respondent said, “most women just have better things to think about than set-asides and handouts and identity politics.”
Margaret Talev, Bloomberg Politics – June 3, 2016
Hillary Clinton’s run for the White House will be a test case of whether playing the “woman card” is a winning hand. Clinton has reversed course from 2008 and embraced her gender in running to become the first female U.S. president. It’s an appeal to voters who’ll make up half the electorate in November, and a way to soften a sharp-edged image built over a quarter-century in public life.
Janell Ross, Washington Post – May 24, 2016
A full third of Americans believe that gender provides no advantage to either candidate, according to a Washington Post-ABC News poll released Monday, and about the same share of Americans say Clinton gets more of an advantage over Trump because she is a woman (32 percent) as say Trump has an edge because he is a man (29 percent).
Lucy Rock, The Guardian – May 14, 2016
Debbie Walsh, director of the Center for American Women and Politics at Rutgers University, New Jersey, said: “He’s not actually saying, “we need to get the power back and these women are emasculating us”, but that is what he means. He alludes to it in a way that taps into something. Whether that’s a conscious strategic plan or truly what he believes, I don’t know, but to me it’s not a strategy that wins over women voters. I don’t think he thinks it does either. The only group it wins over is men.”
Donna Brazile, Commercial-News – May 14, 2016
Remember those Road Runner cartoons, where no matter what dirty tricks Wile E. Coyote used to catch the Road Runner, he would always end up frustrated while the Road Runner went “beep beep” and rocketed away? Recently, we’ve seen Donald Trump acting like the Coyote and going after Hillary Clinton with everything he could find in the Acme Co. catalog, including the gender card.
Asma Khalid, NPR – May 10, 2016
“There’s been multiple ways that Donald Trump’s sort of played his own man card,” Dittmar said. “Just by talking about the size of his manhood, in the most direct and overt ways, but he’s also taken on the tactic of talking about other candidates as weak or little, like ‘Little Marco,’ and even making fun of Jeb Bush for needing his mommy, infantilizing Jeb Bush.”