Tara Golshan, Vox – September 4, 2016
I spoke with Traister recently about how we can think about Hillary Clinton in the context of 2016, why women struggle with ambivalence around her run, and the complex legacy of her husband. Below is a lightly edited transcript of our conversation.
Vanessa Friedman, New York Times – August 30, 2016
As of next month, when new ads will appear in the giant September fashion magazines, there will be yet another unabashed pro-Clinton campaign in the offing, thanks to Elie Tahari. Photographed by James Macari and titled “Madam President,” it features a model in a red sheath dress in the Oval Office; in a gray lace-sleeved number, speaking from behind a lectern with the presidential seal; and in a narrow black trouser suit, amid a walk-and-talk briefing surrounded by American flags and Secret Service men in what looks like the Capitol.
Danielle Paquette, Washington Post – August 29, 2016
Can a female president curb sexism? A new survey from the Associated Press and the NORC Center for Public Affairs Research conveys young Americans have little faith she could. The national poll of 1,096 adults found 60 percent thought a Clinton administration would have no effect on the level of discrimination against women. (Just a quarter said they would expect conditions to improve.)
Katy Steinmetz, Motto – August 23, 2016
During this election, pundits have often tangled over just how much attention should be paid to Hillary Clinton’s gender, as she forges on in her pursuit of the Oval Office. We don’t, after all, go around referring to George Washington as the first man president or wondering how Obama’s maleness might play into china-pattern selections at the White House. But this is a first. There are moments that call for acknowledging the fact that she is a she, as no presidential nominee for a major party has been before. And just as interesting is the question of what words to use when those moments do arise.
Michelle Cottle, The Atlantic – August 17, 2016
If Hillary Clinton wins the White House in November, it will be a historic moment, the smashing of the preeminent glass ceiling in American public life. A mere 240 years after this nation’s founding, a woman will occupy its top office. America’s daughters will at last have living, breathing, pantsuit-wearing proof that they too can grow up to be president. A Clinton victory also promises to usher in four-to-eight years of the kind of down-and-dirty public misogyny you might expect from a stag party at Roger Ailes’s house.
Susan Berry, Breitbart – August 17, 2016
Democrat vice presidential candidate Sen. Tim Kaine says the United States is far behind some Muslim countries in treating women equally because it is “below the global average” in the percentage of women in elected office.
John Harwood, New York Times – August 11, 2016
The first female vice-presidential nominee got a full helping of gender stereotype. “Let me help you with the difference,” George H. W. Bush told the nominee, Geraldine Ferraro, in their 1984 debate, “between Iran and the embassy in Lebanon.” The first female presidential nominee faces no danger from such an attack. Hillary Clinton holds clear advantages over Donald Trump when it comes to what voters once considered masculine strengths they sought in a leader.
Anne Kim, Washington Monthly – August 9, 2016
As America’s first potential female president, Democrat Hillary Clinton could decisively shatter the last glass ceiling in American politics this fall. But as gratifying as that victory would be, women are still woefully underrepresented in public office.
Kathy Frankovic, YouGov – August 8, 2016
The gender gap – the pattern of men and women differing in their vote intention – first became apparent in the election of 1980, when men were much more likely than women to vote for Republican Ronald Reagan, and women divided evenly between Reagan and then-President Jimmy Carter. The size of the gap has varied from election to election, and was at its highest in 2012. 2016 will be the first time that a presidential election will have a woman at the top of a party’s ticket. How big is the gap today?
Rebecca Traister, New York Magazine – August 7, 2016
While the blaming of an anticipated loss on voter fraud is certainly not exclusive to this election cycle — Google “Diebold” and “2004” — the language used by Trump and his allies, the language of delegitimization, is especially telling, and potentially powerful, in a race against the first woman ever nominated for the presidency. It channels a conviction that has deep roots in our culture: A woman could never really win, not over a man. Her purported victory must, on some level, be inauthentic — whether because she cheated or because she shouldn’t have been allowed to compete in the first place.