Tag: Research

Coded and Loaded: How Politicians Talk About Race and Gender Without Really Talking About Race and Gender

Posted on by Kelly Dittmar

Chris Smith, California Magazine – September 21, 2016

Unfiltered misogyny, much like outright racism, probably isn’t a winning electoral formula. Now that Trump is locked in battle with Hillary Clinton, the first female presidential candidate of a major party and a high-wattage celebrity in her own right, we will see if he can stay on the right side of the line. Clinton is simultaneously the most loved and most hated woman in modern American politics, and brings plenty of her own baggage to the contest—particularly the perception that she’s a pay-to-play politician with no moral compass.

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Is Sexism Really the Reason the Election is so Close?

Posted on by Kelly Dittmar

Janell Ross, Washington Post – September 20, 2016

Over the weekend, President Obama said a number of things about the 2016 election. Among them was a declaration that Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump do not have comparable resumes or temperaments and nothing he’s seen thus far suggests that Trump is actually ready for the White House. In fact, Obama said, the election should not even be close but will be because of sexism, epitomized by the country’s continued discomfort with women in leadership roles and different facets of Clinton’s personality. So, The Fix reached out to Mandy O’Neill to help us pick Obama’s claim apart.

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Hillary Clinton: ‘It’s Especially Tricky for Women’ to Come Across as Both Serious and Likable

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Amber Phillips, Washington Post – September 20, 2016

Hillary Clinton doesn’t willingly talk much about the hurdles she faces as a woman in politics that her male opponents don’t have to. But in an interview aired Monday night with Jimmy Fallon on “The Tonight Show,” the first major-party female presidential candidate weighed in on what she called a “tricky” struggle to be a serious yet likable presidential candidate — the latter being a character trait female politicians have to think about more than men, research shows.

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Why Hillary Clinton Gets Interrupted More than Donald Trump

Posted on by Kelly Dittmar

Francesca Gino, Harvard Business Review – September 20, 2016

In a well-known study conducted back in 1975, sociologists Don Zimmerman and Candace West of the University of California, Santa Barbara systematically examined interruptions by men and women during conversations. They visited various public places, from coffee shops to drugstores, and surreptitiously recorded any two-person conversations they overheard. Their final sample was rather small (31 dialogues in total), but the results are still worth noting: In mixed-sex conversations, men were responsible for all but one of the 48 interruptions they overheard.

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No Matter Who Wins, this Election Could Have a Negative Impact on Your Daughter. Here’s Why.

Posted on by Kelly Dittmar

Richard Weissbourd and Alison Cashin, Washington Post – September 20, 2016

Even if Hillary Clinton wins the presidential election in November, the 2016 campaign still could have profoundly negative consequences for a generation of girls exploring their own leadership potential. To be sure, electing the first female president would show American girls that women truly can overcome gender bias and win elections at the highest levels. But they will also have witnessed another truth: They will pay a price for trying.

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America Has Always Seen Ambitious Women as Unhealthy

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Rebecca Onion, Slate – September 16, 2016

The cover of this week’s National Enquirer features a wan, gray Hillary Clinton, looking like she has been drained of all her vital fluids. The photograph, if you can call it that, is a perfect visual artifact of the recent storm of right-wing rumormongering over Clinton’s health, which spilled into the mainstream media this past weekend when Clinton revealed a pneumonia diagnosis that would keep her off the campaign trail for a few days while she underwent treatment.

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Hillary Clinton’s Charisma Deficit is a Common Problem for Female Leaders

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Elizabeth Winkler, Quartz – September 11, 2016

Hillary Clinton may be, in the words of Barack Obama, the “most qualified candidate” to ever to seek the presidency, but it’s now commonplace to suggest her leadership leaves something wanting. The Guardian notes that she “lacks authenticity and the kind of charisma required to unite a nation.” The Daily Beast asks, “Can Hillary’s one-percent charm win over voters?” And on Reddit, users wonder: “How can Hillary Clinton be so far in the lead with so little charisma?”

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Liar. Narcissist. Racist. These Suburban Women Really, Really Don’t Like Trump.

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Greg Sargent, Washington Post – September 8, 2016

If Trump is going to close the gap with Hillary Clinton in certain key battlegrounds, he may have to win back at least a small slice of the voters in this category that he appears to have alienated, though there may be other paths for him. But in a focus group organized by veteran Democratic pollster Stan Greenberg in a suburb of Philadelphia last night, a group of these voters appeared entirely closed off to reconsidering Trump, describing him and his public statements in the harshest of terms: Liar. Narcissist. Egotist. Racist.

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Why do White Men love Donald Trump so Much?

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Howard Rosenthal, Washington Post – September 8, 2016

The rise of Donald Trump has put the focus on one particular demographic: men. In a provocative post entitled “What the hell is going on?” the economist Tyler Cowen argued, “The contemporary world is not very well built for a large chunk of males.” Understanding the views of men, and particularly Trump’s base of white men, is key.

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Fear of a Female President

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Peter Beinart, The Atlantic – September 8, 2016

Over the past few years, political scientists have suggested that, counterintuitively, Barack Obama’s election may have led to greater acceptance by whites of racist rhetoric. Something similar is now happening with gender. Hillary Clinton’s candidacy is sparking the kind of sexist backlash that decades of research would predict. If she becomes president, that backlash could convulse American politics for years to come.

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