Jonathan Zimmerman: Why gender still matters in American politics
[Jonathan Zimmerman teaches history and education at New York University. He is the author of Innocents Abroad: American Teachers in the American Century.]
Women are more kind and nurturing than men. They are natural altruists, placing the common good — including education, health and the environment — ahead of their narrow personal interests. And that's why we need a woman president. Right?
Wrong. We don't need a female president, any more than we need a male one. Instead, we need to jettison the gender stereotypes that block half the population — the female half, that is — from participating equally in our politics.
Just ask Hillary Clinton. Poised to become our first female nominee for president, Clinton has spent most of the campaign trying to dispel the idea that she's too feminine — too gentle, too thoughtful, too caring — to lead the nation. But when she adopts a tough persona, especially on foreign policy and defense issues, some voters complain that she's behaving like a man.
How did we get here? The problem goes back to the early 1800s, when U.S. states enfranchised white men but barred women from voting. So electoral politics became, by definition, a masculine activity. Women would govern the hearth and home, providing a haven from the heartless male world of avarice and competition.
19th century reforms
"So long as a fireside and a home exist, so long must woman exercise a boundless power over the destiny of man," declared an 1838 advice manual, "A Voice to Youth." Whereas men ruled the public world via laws and armies, women influenced the private realm "by persuasion, by kindness, by gentleness and affection, and by a soothing and forgiving spirit."
In fact, women participated in all of the great political reforms of the early 19th century: temperance, anti-slavery, the quest for common schools and more. They gave speeches, wrote broadsides and circulated petitions. But they did so as women, vowing to make the nation more "home-like" by infusing it with their distinct domestic qualities. And they used high-minded moral appeals, of course, not the sleazy machinations of elections.
In the early 20th century, women used a similar claim to win the vote. Less selfish and corruptible than men, women would "sweep away" the vice and bribery of boss politics. And their ballots would usher in a new era of "municipal housekeeping," whereby government provided social services for immigrants, workers and children.
Bold vs. fair traits
But the very same characteristics that qualified women for politics — fairness, empathy and altruism — seemed to disqualify them as politicians. As the United States grew into a world power, Americans wanted leaders who were bold, tough and decisive. And they associated those attributes with men, not with women.
Around the world, more than 40 countries have chosen female heads of state. Today's crisis in Pakistan was fueled, in part, by the return of Benazir Bhutto, a female former prime minister.
Indira Gandhi governed India for 14 tumultuous years; nearby Bangladesh and Sri Lanka have elected women leaders. Eleven nations were led by women by the end of 2006, ranging from Germany and Ireland to Liberia and Mozambique. But not the USA, where our longstanding gender assumptions block female politicians from rising to the top. Such ideas have received a new boost from contemporary multiculturalism, which sometimes ascribes a distinct culture to women. So if a woman leader acts like a woman, she isn't tough enough to be president; and if she is tough enough, she's simply acting like a man.
And our kids are watching. After serving eight years as Iceland's president, Vigdis Finnbogadottir quipped that some children in her country thought that you had to be a woman to hold the office.
In the USA, you still have to be a man — or behave like one. And you always will, so long as we continue to teach our own children that gender differences make the difference in U.S. politics.
Women are more kind and nurturing than men. They are natural altruists, placing the common good — including education, health and the environment — ahead of their narrow personal interests. And that's why we need a woman president. Right?
Wrong. We don't need a female president, any more than we need a male one. Instead, we need to jettison the gender stereotypes that block half the population — the female half, that is — from participating equally in our politics.
Just ask Hillary Clinton. Poised to become our first female nominee for president, Clinton has spent most of the campaign trying to dispel the idea that she's too feminine — too gentle, too thoughtful, too caring — to lead the nation. But when she adopts a tough persona, especially on foreign policy and defense issues, some voters complain that she's behaving like a man.
How did we get here? The problem goes back to the early 1800s, when U.S. states enfranchised white men but barred women from voting. So electoral politics became, by definition, a masculine activity. Women would govern the hearth and home, providing a haven from the heartless male world of avarice and competition.
19th century reforms
"So long as a fireside and a home exist, so long must woman exercise a boundless power over the destiny of man," declared an 1838 advice manual, "A Voice to Youth." Whereas men ruled the public world via laws and armies, women influenced the private realm "by persuasion, by kindness, by gentleness and affection, and by a soothing and forgiving spirit."
In fact, women participated in all of the great political reforms of the early 19th century: temperance, anti-slavery, the quest for common schools and more. They gave speeches, wrote broadsides and circulated petitions. But they did so as women, vowing to make the nation more "home-like" by infusing it with their distinct domestic qualities. And they used high-minded moral appeals, of course, not the sleazy machinations of elections.
In the early 20th century, women used a similar claim to win the vote. Less selfish and corruptible than men, women would "sweep away" the vice and bribery of boss politics. And their ballots would usher in a new era of "municipal housekeeping," whereby government provided social services for immigrants, workers and children.
Bold vs. fair traits
But the very same characteristics that qualified women for politics — fairness, empathy and altruism — seemed to disqualify them as politicians. As the United States grew into a world power, Americans wanted leaders who were bold, tough and decisive. And they associated those attributes with men, not with women.
Around the world, more than 40 countries have chosen female heads of state. Today's crisis in Pakistan was fueled, in part, by the return of Benazir Bhutto, a female former prime minister.
Indira Gandhi governed India for 14 tumultuous years; nearby Bangladesh and Sri Lanka have elected women leaders. Eleven nations were led by women by the end of 2006, ranging from Germany and Ireland to Liberia and Mozambique. But not the USA, where our longstanding gender assumptions block female politicians from rising to the top. Such ideas have received a new boost from contemporary multiculturalism, which sometimes ascribes a distinct culture to women. So if a woman leader acts like a woman, she isn't tough enough to be president; and if she is tough enough, she's simply acting like a man.
And our kids are watching. After serving eight years as Iceland's president, Vigdis Finnbogadottir quipped that some children in her country thought that you had to be a woman to hold the office.
In the USA, you still have to be a man — or behave like one. And you always will, so long as we continue to teach our own children that gender differences make the difference in U.S. politics.