Stereotypes Women Candidates Face Today

Transcript

Women are also I think perceived very often as having experience in certain program areas, which by implication means they are inexperienced in others.

So the stereotype is that women are the authorities on women’s issues: abortion, reproductive rights, healthcare and anything to do with children. And even if a woman positions herself, much like Elizabeth Warren has as being an expert in tax, finance, economics, foreign policy or the military, that they are not ever seen as authoritative on those issues as a man would be.

So the stereotype for men is that they get the world and women get the family. It’s really an extension of how we see the social expectations within the family of who takes responsibility for what. And for people like Elizabeth Warren, she’s really styled herself, she was an expert in bankruptcy when she was an attorney and a law professor and now has translated that into being an expert in consumer financial protection and tax policy and so on and so forth, it’s a very slow process to get the media to recognize women as authorities in those fields.

And women who have been elected to office will often complain that when they get called by the media, it’s to talk about women’s issues, whether they consider themselves experts or not. And that they’re not asked about what they consider to be their legislative priorities. And the same is not true for men.