{"id":18766,"date":"2019-12-02T17:35:31","date_gmt":"2019-12-02T17:35:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/?p=18766"},"modified":"2019-12-03T07:01:50","modified_gmt":"2019-12-03T07:01:50","slug":"2020-campaign-shows-the-more-women-run-the-more-they-are-treated-like-candidates-not-tokens","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/2020-campaign-shows-the-more-women-run-the-more-they-are-treated-like-candidates-not-tokens\/","title":{"rendered":"2020 campaign shows the more women run, the more they are treated like candidates \u2013 not tokens"},"content":{"rendered":"

Elizabeth C. Tippett<\/a>, University of Oregon<\/a><\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

When Victoria Woodhull ran for president in 1872, she was depicted as \u201cMrs. Satan\u201d<\/a> in a political cartoon. <\/p>\n

When Sen. Margaret Chase Smith sought the Republican nomination in 1964, one columnist labeled her too old \u2013 at 66 \u2013 while others insisted she was attractive \u201cfor her age.\u201d<\/a><\/p>\n

When Hillary Clinton sought the Democratic nomination in 2008 and the presidency in 2016, she was unable to escape gender-based tropes characterizing her as \u201ccalculating\u201d and \u201cpower hungry.\u201d<\/a><\/p>\n

But in observing the 2020 Democratic presidential primary \u2013 which has featured as many six women<\/a> \u2013 it seems possible that this time might be different. Not because sexism has left the building, but because the critical mass of women candidates may have changed the dynamic.<\/p>\n

\n \"\"<\/a>
\n Sen. Margaret Chase Smith ran for president in 1964.<\/span>
\n AP Photo<\/span><\/span>
\n <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

A lone woman in a crowd<\/h2>\n

As a researcher who studies the workplace<\/a>, I was reminded during the debate of an influential study of female representation in the office. <\/p>\n

In the 1970s, business professor Rosabeth Kanter studied<\/a> the group dynamics in a corporate sales division where women represented a tiny part of the sales force. When women found themselves \u201calone or nearly alone\u201d in a sea of men, they came to be seen as \u201ctokens\u201d \u2013 a constantly scrutinized stand-in for all women, viewed by others in terms of their gender and gender stereotypes. <\/p>\n

Every action these saleswomen took had \u201csymbolic consequences,\u201d Kanter wrote. \u201cIn short, every act tended to be evaluated beyond its meaning for the organization and taken as a sign of \u2018how women do in sales.\u2019\u201d <\/p>\n

The women were subject to exaggerated scrutiny of their physical appearance and became \u201clarger-than-life caricatures.\u201d Their presence also affected the men, who behaved in a hyper-masculine way to \u201creclaim group solidarity\u201d and emphasize the women\u2019s outsider status.<\/p>\n

This was, essentially, the predicament that Clinton faced as the lone female contender in her unsuccessful 2008 primary bid and as the first woman within striking distance of the White House in 2016. She never had the chance to be one of many female candidates whose qualifications, benefits and flaws could be evaluated in a measured way. <\/p>\n

Even before Donald Trump arrived on the scene, she was a lightning rod and a caricature. During the 2008 primaries<\/a>, a poster depicted her as a witch. Others used various gender-based epithets. A T-shirt said \u201cbros before hoes<\/a>\u201d \u2013 a hyper-masculine expression of in-group solidarity. Fox News compared<\/a> Clinton with a \u201cnagging\u201d wife, while a host on CNN apparently thought \u201cscolding mother\u201d<\/a> was the better analogy. <\/p>\n

In the 2016 election, Trump gleefully piled on, interrupting her in the final debate to call her a \u201cnasty woman.\u201d<\/a><\/p>\n

As the wife of a former president, Clinton was portrayed as the ultimate undeserving \u201ctoken.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n \"\"
\n Trump at one point called Clinton a \u2018nasty woman\u2019 during a debate in 2016.<\/span>
\n AP Photo\/Patrick Semansky<\/span><\/span>
\n <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Critical mass theory<\/h2>\n

Kanter believed that the group dynamics would change if women were better represented in the office.<\/p>\n

She hypothesized that once women made up 35% or 40% of the group, they would be liberated from their token status and others would start to see them as \u201cindividuals differentiated from each other\u201d as well as differentiated from men.
\nThis idea would later be popularized<\/a> as the theory of the \u201ccritical mass.\u201d It inspired, among other things, gender quotas<\/a> in legislatures. Universities would also<\/a> use the idea as a legal justification for affirmative action<\/a> policies on the basis of race.<\/p>\n

I was reminded of the critical mass theory in watching the Nov. 20 debate<\/a> in Atlanta, which was moderated entirely by women. Among the candidates, it featured the same female to male ratio \u2013 40% \u2013 that Kanter predicted would make a difference. <\/p>\n

And it did. <\/p>\n

The four women on stage freed each from being the perfect woman, the \u201cyou\u2019re likable enough\u201d<\/a> trap that left Clinton in a bind. It meant Sen. Elizabeth Warren isn\u2019t a nasty woman \u2013 she is a populist<\/a>, as some have described her, like Bernie Sanders<\/a>.<\/p>\n

It meant Sen. Kamala Harris can attack colleague Rep. Tulsi Gabbard\u2019s record without it being portrayed as a \u201ccatfight.\u201d<\/p>\n

Freed to be funny<\/h2>\n

But what I noticed most from the female candidates were the sly jokes and subtle digs. Humor is difficult when you\u2019re alone in a crowd. Garnering a laugh can be as much about solidarity as wit. <\/p>\n

During the Atlanta debate, Sen. Amy Klobuchar was in particularly fine form. She bragged<\/a> about having \u201craised $17,000 from ex-boyfriends\u201d in her first Senate race. She also doubled down on a past comment that a female version of Mayor Pete Buttigieg would never have made it this far with his meager political experience. \u201cWomen are held to a higher standard,\u201d she said, \u201cotherwise, we could play a game called Name Your Favorite Woman President.\u201d <\/p>\n

Harris even used humor to good effect when former Vice President Joe Biden claimed he had the endorsement of the \u201conly African American woman \u2026 elected to the United States Senate\u201d \u2013 apparently referring to<\/a> Carol Moseley Braun. <\/p>\n

\u201cThe other one is here,\u201d Harris quipped. The audience guffawed.<\/p>\n

\n \"\"
\n Telling a joke on stage can be as much about solidarity as wit.<\/span>
\n AP Photo\/David J. Phillip<\/span><\/span>
\n <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Power in numbers<\/h2>\n

Kanter observed<\/a> that women\u2019s isolation in these settings not only affected how they were perceived by others. It also affected their own behavior. <\/p>\n

Aware of their symbolic status, women felt extra pressure to perform and \u201cprove their competence\u201d while simultaneously trying not to make the men \u201clook bad\u201d and \u201cblend noticeably into the predominant male culture.\u201d<\/p>\n

I wondered how Hillary Clinton would have looked up there alongside the others in Atlanta. It\u2019s possible she would have come across as wooden or boring. Even so, the stakes would have been lower \u2013 an inference that this particular person is boring, not that women can\u2019t cut it. <\/p>\n

[ Like what you\u2019ve read? Want more?<\/em> Sign up for The Conversation\u2019s daily newsletter<\/a>. ]\"The<\/p>\n

Elizabeth C. Tippett<\/a>, Associate Professor, School of Law, University of Oregon<\/a><\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

This article is republished from The Conversation<\/a> under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Elizabeth C. Tippett, University of Oregon When Victoria Woodhull ran for president in 1872, she was depicted as \u201cMrs. Satan\u201d in a political cartoon. When Sen. Margaret Chase Smith sought the Republican nomination in 1964, one columnist labeled her too old \u2013 at 66 \u2013 while others insisted she was attractive \u201cfor her age.\u201d When […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":44,"featured_media":18768,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[4],"tags":[3473,7325,6901,7323,6934,479,5917,2476,1184,2474,7320,477,7046,7319,7324,2812,1976,7322,7321,4167,792],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18766"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/44"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=18766"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18766\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":18769,"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18766\/revisions\/18769"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/18768"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=18766"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=18766"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=18766"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}