Breaking: Women in politics face sexism. And the New York Times, one of the key offenders in 2008 and 2016, is on it, with a story headlined "'A woman, just not that woman': How sexism plays out on the trail." The story is chock-full of good points that highlight exactly what so many of us have seen playing out again and again—even as the Times continues to refuse to acknowledge its massive failures in 2016.
It’s good to report on the reams of research showing that voters treat women unequally. Voters who didn’t like either candidate in 2016 were a lot more willing to vote for Donald Trump. Voters dislike women who are seen as power-seeking or ambitious while seeing such men as strong. For female candidates who “played up stereotypically masculine qualities, voters — regardless of party — rated them better in terms of leadership ability, but voters in the opposing party rated them significantly lower in terms of likability.” And it’s important for the Democratic women running in 2020 to know this:
Dr. Bauer said that in all her research, she had found no way for women to win the support of voters in the opposing party. It’s a basic psychological phenomenon, she said: If a Republican starts out disliking a Democratic woman, or vice versa, “they’ll use gender stereotypes about women to maintain that perceived negative relationship” no matter what the woman does.
But while the Times reports on some important research here, let’s limit our huzzahs, because this newspaper has been a purveyor of some of the worst coverage we’ve seen from a supposedly respectable news institution. The Times, with its relentless focus on Hillary Clinton’s emails and its total buy-in to the Steve Bannon-backed Clinton Cash book, helped keep the focus off of real issues in ways guaranteed—as the research they cite here makes clear—to benefit her male competitors.
Women are told to smile … but if they laugh too loudly, they can expect intense news analysis of their “cackle” from, yes, the New York Times. Dress well and look good at all times … but expect scrutiny of how much it costs. So, yeah, a lot of voters are rank sexists, and here’s a little tip of the hat to the Times for delving into that. But the media plays a special role, and the Times continues to refuse responsibility for the part it plays.