Thinking They’re ‘Unqualified’ Is A Big Reason More Women Don’t Run For Office

[MADem]

http://fivethirtyeight.com/features/why-calling-hillary-clinton-unqualified-smacks-of-sexism/

This is part of the reason why, if I have a choice, I gravitate towards the female -- either as a politician, or a worker, or as a "right hand man" (tongue-in-cheek, that). They have to be TWICE AS GOOD TO GET HALF THE CREDIT.

Bernie Sanders rallies, which have become renowned of late for their St. Francis dances with the animals vibe, lost a bit of their mystique on Wednesday in Philadelphia, when the Vermont senator said something that stuck in the craws of many: that Hillary Clinton isn’t qualified to be president.

She has been saying lately that she thinks I am not quote unquote qualified to be president,” Sanders said. “Let me just say in response to Secretary Clinton: I don’t believe that she is qualified if she is, through her super-PAC, taking tens of millions of dollars in special interests’ funds.

Sanders, who has since walked back his comments, was responding to Clinton’s critique of his interview with the editorial board of the New York Daily News, in which he stumbled over the details of his plan to break up the banks. “He’d been talking for more than a year about doing things that he obviously hadn’t really studied or understood, and that does raise a lot of questions,” Clinton said.

In his Philadelphia remarks, Sanders was attempting to make the basic argument of this election — that “outsiders” are more qualified than “insiders” to run the country at this particular moment. But calling Clinton, a former U.S. senator and secretary of state, “unqualified” is raising ire as a gendered attack, although that didn’t appear to be Sanders’ intention.

While 2016 campaign discussions of sexism have largely been preoccupied with Donald Trump’s blunt force assaults on modern notions of manners, let alone gender equity, Sanders’ remarks and their interpretation play into discussions of the subtle, pernicious forms of sexism that women in positions of power must deal with.

At the core of Clinton’s candidate packaging is the idea that she has for decades been the competent woman behind the scenes — a workhorse, not a show pony.

Clinton is not alone among her cohort in having highly burnished credentials; most female politicians are more qualified than their male counterparts, according to a 2013 paper by political scientists Kathryn Pearson and Eric McGhee. Looking at non-incumbent congressional races from 1984 to 2010, and which candidates had held elected office at a lower level — their metric for qualification — the researchers found that “women candidates in both parties are indeed more qualified than men.....”

http://fivethirtyeight.com/features/why-calling-hillary-clinton-unqualified-smacks-of-sexism/

[DemonGoddess]

1. K&R!

How many of us, in the work force, have had to do exactly that? Work ever so much harder to prove ourselves, and show ourselves to be so much more efficient at a particular job, to be able to KEEP that job?

[stonecutter357]

2. K&R!

[BlueMTexpat]

3. Anytime that I have said anything

remotely similar, I have been accused of "playing the gender card."

But I have seen this happen over and over - and over - again. No matter who the woman candidate is, it's always: "not THIS woman" but always another who isn't even in the running. And that is supposed to prove that the person is not gender-biased. If it were the first time that I had seen it happen, perhaps. But it has NOT been the first time.

A male candidate can have imperfections. Sometimes those imperfections are even considered praiseworthy.

A female candidate must be absolutely perfect, every day, in every single way. Heaven help her if she ever - even inadvertently - slips up.

[Cha]

4. Wow! She lays it out there really compellingly!

It 's no wonder BS finally took it back.. the Backlash has been Enormous! BS had no choice or he wouldn't have.. I give him no credit for it.

The President came out and took Hillary's side.. for that I am grateful.

Thank you for this, MADem~

[SharonClark]

5. Absolutely true

If you've ever recruited candidates for local or statewide office, you know this is true. In general, men are flattered to be asked and confident they can run the world. Women start calculating how it will affect their jobs and family and know they don't have all the answers.

[ismnotwasm]

6. Yup. Spot on. So much sexism to spout

So little primary time left...