Playing the Gender Card
March 7, 2008
Early in the presidential race, Hillary Clinton chose not to emphasize her gender, because she wanted to convey the front-runner image rather than that of a feminist candidate. So said Thomas Hollihan of the USC Annenberg School in an Election 2008 article last week.
Because she is facing Barack Obama’s movement-style message, Clinton must emphasize the importance of electing a woman to the presidency, Hollihan believes. “I don’t think she can counter that kind of movement-inspired candidacy if she can’t counter with the concept that electing a woman is also a movement sort of goal,” he explains.
In fact, the candidate made tentative strides in that direction just before pulling off Texas and Ohio primary wins.
Two USC experts on feminism and politics were asked whether it is time for Clinton to stress her femaleness.
Alice Echols, USC College professor of English, Gender Studies and History, feels that the implications of electing the first woman president just don’t generate the same response as electing the first African American.
“I think for a complex set of reasons Clinton has not been nearly as successful in rallying people around the historic nature of her candidacy as has Obama,” Echols says. “For one, I think her inability to get as much traction from gender as Obama has from race speaks to the deep-seated misogyny in our culture.”
Echols, author of Daring To Be Bad: Radical Feminism in America, 1967-1975, says one example of sexism is the way that the media subjects Clinton to a kind of “bodily scrutiny that does not figure in the coverage of male candidates.”
“As a nation, we want to feel as if we have moved past racism. I think Obama may benefit from supporters feeling a kind of self-satisfaction — ‘See how un-racist I am, I support Obama’ — that simply does not work for Hillary around gender,” Echols says. “You could call it the Prius factor. Obama supporters can feel self-congratulatory about striking a blow against racism, in the way that Prius drivers can feel they're striking a blow for energy responsibility and independence. Striking a blow against sexism and feeling good about it has not figured nearly as much in this campaign.”
Judith Halberstam, USC College professor of English and Gender Studies, believes that Clinton’s gender is inherently front and center in the race. But Halberstam adds Clinton should make feminism more central to her platform.
“‘Playing the gender card’ would imply that gender and race are not already factors in this race. Obviously they are, and much has been made of the fact that we have the historic opportunity to elect the first woman or the first black male president,” Halberstam says. “But if Hillary Clinton really wanted to play the gender card as something more than just a superficial fact of her embodiment, she would actually have to articulate an explicitly feminist platform that was anti-war, anti-corporate and promised real material benefits for women.
“So, yes, she should make feminism more of her campaign.”