Kathleen Dalton: What Would Change If a Woman Were President?
[Ms. Dalton is the author of Theodore Roosevelt: A Strenuous Life (Vintage).]
I'm glad you asked me about what I think would be different if a woman,
in this case Hillary Clinton, were elected president. I do have an
opinion--surprise, surprise!!!
When Eleanor Roosevelt was First Lady some people thought she should run for president after her husband left office. She was conversant with the issues, smart, articulate, a good public speaker, widely respected, and she had the skills to work with Congress to get bills passed. She was also considerably healthier than her husband. The major problem with that idea was the undercurrent of prejudice against women that existed at the time. Journalists like Westbrook Pegler attacked everything she did, accused her of having communist sympathies, and called her"La Boca Grande." Many people were uncomfortable with a First Lady like Eleanor Roosevelt speaking out on political issues, but by the time she died she had done immense good (she changed world history by getting the Universal Declaration of Human Rights passed and she remained a major voice in the Democratic Party until her death. ER was one of the most beloved figures in American history and if Americans had been able to set aside their prejudices they could have had a fine woman president in Eleanor Roosevelt. They weren't ready.
Is America ready now? The Westbrook Pegler of our time is, of course, Robert Novak (why is a man who outed a CIA agent NOT in jail?). Novak was attacking Hillary from the first weeks of the first Clinton term of office, accusing her of being behind the gays in the military controversy and everything that went wrong with the Clinton administration. He is not the only Hillary-hater running loose on the political trail. Hate Hillary sites exist on the web and right-wing millionaires like Richard Scaife have funded think tanks to spread lies about the Clintons. The Clinton haters are numerous and well-placed in the media, and eager to blame her for every mistake her husband made. This contingent of haters would provide a downside to her presidency which is not really her fault. She would have to figure out how to make fun of them or neutralize them in some new way. The familiar game plan of the Clinton camp, locked-in-the-death-grip-of-political-combat-with-the-right tactic, would need to be replaced by a more positive plan. I think she knows that.
A Hillary Clinton presidency would be different from an Obama or McCain presidency because the sexism of the right wing and even the mainstream media would be aimed against her. Have you seen Chris Matthews fulminate against her? It's disgusting--and women are circulating the clip on You Tube with shock and anger. The Rush Limbaughs of hate-talk radio call women like me who believe in equal rights for my students like you"femi-nazis" though his hyperbole is ridiculous and he is pitiful.
Hillary haters are a sick bunch, and there are a lot of them. The political landscape of the nineties was a creation of a religious right and extremists like Newt Gingrich, not the Clintons. I am sorry to say that many of my former students who are avid OBAMANIACS have been inclined to exaggerate Hillary's short-comings in the heat of the campaign. I say"Fine" disagree with her moments of centrism, criticize her husband and his big ego all you want, but try, please try, to stick to the issues and the qualifications. Though I do not know who I will support (I certainly won't support a defense hawk like McCain) I hope that the Democrats will come together behind whoever gets the nomination. Leave the hating Hillary to the media and the right wing. A President Obama would get some right wing and white supremacist hate and he is ready to deal with that. A President Hillary Clinton would have to be braced for a lot more overt nastiness because sexism still has a power to make people crazy. She's"been there-done that" already. She's ready for prime time, prepared to rise above the fray and lead.
A Hillary presidency would happen because the gender gap has come of age. Women have been voting less hawkishly than men since 1980 and men are more susceptible to the chest-pounding defend-our-country rhetoric we will no doubt hear from McCain. 2008 will be the year that men and women see the candidates from different vantage points. If a McCain-Obama contest emerges will gender-susceptible men see the choice as Tough Guy candidate versus Sensitive New Age Guy? If so expect McCain to be sending more of your sons and daughters to Iraq. he says he surge wasn't big enough. Watch those men who like Rambo movies and see how they vote!
Pundits need to watch women as voters, too. The women's backlash in New Hampshire, older women voting for Hillary in large numbers after Obama and Edwards ganged up on her in the debate and after she expressed some human feeling about the attacks, is a sign that the anti-Hillary attacks can evoke some sympathy and a reaction in her favor. Right now attacking a woman candidate carries more political danger than attacking a male candidate. How the dance of Hillary-haters and Hillary-sympathizers would play out in a presidency is anyone's guess. Maybe it is time America faced its capacity for demonizing strong women.
Taking Hillary Clinton for herself I would think she would be as good a president as any candidate who has run in the past quarter century in terms of experience, ability, and vision. But I do not believe that women are inherently different from men and I am not sure if your question suggests that you are expecting a woman to have different hormones or style or something that would make her presidency different from a man's presidency. Based on her record there would not be anything especially different about a Hillary Clinton presidency. In political views and coalition-building style, we don't have much evidence that women are really that different from men. Women politicians like Hillary are urged by political consultants to act presidential and she does it well.
What would her policies be like? Her website tells us a lot. She is a centrist Democrat with progressive leanings. She was always different from her husband politically but she learned a lot from the polarized political atmosphere of the eight years her husband was president and she has learned a lot as Senator from New York.
I hope we give her a chance and don't hold her being a woman against her and don't hold her husband's presidency against her either. Buy hat man a chastity belt and send him on diplomatic missions--he will be an asset to her presidency.