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Can Hillary Clinton Show That Women Can Run…and Win?

Now that Hillary Clinton is officially running for president in 2016, we have perhaps the most powerful example to show girls and young women that it is possible for women to aspire to the highest positions. In her recorded announcement, Clinton said, “Everyday Americans need a champion, and I want to be that champion.” With her announcement, Clinton also became the first woman to take a second run at the presidency. This kind of grit and tenacity is exactly what we need to show children who still may think that the presidency of the United States is open only to men.

During her brief run for president in 1987, former Colorado congresswoman Pat Schroeder continually heard people tell her various versions of: “You do not look like the president.” Almost 30 years later, Senator Kirsten Gillibrand chronicled how cultural expectations of how women should look still poison the political landscape, as chronicled in her book Off the Sidelines. She recounted that one male colleague expressed concern that she might become “porky,” while another made the backhanded suggestion that she was pretty even when she was fat. Young women are told that to be successful is to be both smart and beautiful, and being judged first on how she looks and then on what she thinks or says continues to be a daunting expectation for women of all ages, but in particular young women and those in the public eye.

In her 2013 American University study, “Girls Just Wanna Not Run: The Gender Gap in Young Americans’ Political Ambition,” Professor Jennifer Lawless found that adults do not see the girls in their lives as political candidates, and thus offer little or no encouragement for them to run for political office. Not only do girls not see themselves as potential candidates, the adults who are most influential in their lives do not see them that way either.

There are many reasons that neither adults nor children tend to think of girls and women as being potential political leaders. One reason is the relative dearth of women in visible positions of leadership. The numbers of women in elected positions are still stubbornly low. There have been only 44 women in the United States Senate since the establishment of the body in 1789. There are currently 104 women in the 114th Congress, and there were 103 in the 113th. So while we have seen some progress, increases in women’s representation seem stalled. And, of course, we have yet to elect a woman president.

Another reason, I believe, is so many of the stories of women who have served in political leadership—including those who have run for president— are left out of the history books, eliminating the opportunity for them to serve as role models for young women. Preserving women’s history and reminding our younger generations, especially girls and young women, about it, is crucial for continued progress.

That’s why I co-wrote a children’s book, Madam President: Five Women Who Paved the Way (Eifrig Publishing, 2015), along with Abby Kennedy, a Penn State sophomore. The book is based on my scholarly research on women and the American presidency. In this book, we trace the young lives and historic bids of five women who have run for the presidency: Margaret Chase Smith, Shirley Chisholm, Patricia Schroeder, Elizabeth Dole, and Hillary Clinton. The book encourages young readers to expand their thinking about themselves and to try things that have never been done before. This book joins other efforts to expand girls’ options, such as GoldieBlox engineering toys for girls, and The National Girls Collaborative Project, encouraging girls to pursue careers in STEM.

Shortly after Clinton’s strong run for the Democratic nomination in 2008, I conducted a focus group to discuss the subject of a woman president with ten girls, ages 11 to 14. With the example of Clinton’s bid fresh in their minds, these girls believed that “the only reason there hasn’t been a woman president yet is because not enough women have tried to be president.” Several participants said, “Only Hillary Clinton has run.” When they were shown examples of others such as Shirley Chisholm and Elizabeth Dole, none of the girls had heard of those women or had read about them in newspapers or history books.

I’ve interviewed middle school teachers who have suggested that offering students more examples of women’s achievement would better equip them to reach for their dreams. When asked about extraordinary achievers, students are quick to mention sports and movie stars. But if they heard more about women and men successful in medicine or business or politics, one teacher commented, “we would change how the children think of greatness.”

In the year prior to Hillary Clinton’s and Barack Obama’s bids to become the Democratic nominee, authors Rebecca S. Bigler, Andrea E. Arthur, Julie Milligan Hughes, and Meagan M. Patterson found that one in four children believed it was illegal for men of color or women to hold the office of president. “[Children] have seen [the presidents] all over the media, on posters, in classroom history books," said Rebecca Bigler at that time, "yet no one ever explains to them why they have all been white men. There is never a conversation about, that so children start to come up with their own explanations." The same study found that girls who attributed the lack of female presidents to discrimination were more likely to report that they could not really become president, even if they were interested in doing so.

Children’s perceptions have certainly expanded now that they see Barack Obama pictured on classroom posters and in the news. However, it will be crucial for them to learn about the presidential bids of Clinton and other women. These important historical facts need to be included in school materials so that girls can perceive themselves as potential leaders. We simply cannot take for granted that girls know they can grow up to be whatever they want. They must be reminded that women have run for president and someday, maybe soon, a woman will become President of the United States.

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Women’s Media Center’s “Sexism Sells—But We’re Not Buying It” offers some reminders about what media coverage of Hillary Clinton looked like in 2008.
 
The Women’s Media Center’s Media Guide to Gender Neutral Coverage of Women Candidates + Politicians is the tool created by WMC to help media avoid gendered and sexist language.
 
In addition, the research that WMC produced on appearance for Name It. Change It., a joint project of the Women’s Media Center and She Should Run, details the harm done to women candidates when the media focus on their appearance. This infographic explains that research.


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