# Did Hillary's camp focus too much on her potentially being the first female president? **URL:** \ **Category:** Politics & Elections\ **Created:** [September 8, 2017, 9:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-hillarys-camp-focus-too-much-on-her-potentially-being-the-first-female-president/795796 "2017-09-08T09:42:28Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![Thudlow\_Boink](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thudlow_boink/32/320_2.png) [@Thudlow\_Boink](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Thudlow_Boink)\ **Post date:** [September 9, 2017, 3:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-hillarys-camp-focus-too-much-on-her-potentially-being-the-first-female-president/795796/41 "2017-09-09T15:13:08Z")
> [@Spice\_Weasel](#): > > God I hate trying to cite things on Tapatalk. Just read the article! The support for female President was even lower. Here’s the actual quote, FWIW: > [@](#): > > Only 41% of Millennial men were comfortable with women engineers, compared to 65% of men 65 or older. Likewise, only 43% of Millennial men were comfortable with women being U.S. senators, compared to 64% of Americans overall. (The numbers were 39% versus 61% for women being CEOs of Fortune 500 companies, and 35% versus 57% for president of the United States.) ---
**Author:** ![Spice\_Weasel](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/spice_weasel/32/5435_2.png) [@Spice\_Weasel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spice_Weasel)\ **Post date:** [September 9, 2017, 4:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-hillarys-camp-focus-too-much-on-her-potentially-being-the-first-female-president/795796/42 "2017-09-09T16:17:55Z")
Thank you! ---
**Author:** ![HurricaneDitka](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/96bed5/32.png) [@HurricaneDitka](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/HurricaneDitka)\ **Post date:** [September 9, 2017, 5:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-hillarys-camp-focus-too-much-on-her-potentially-being-the-first-female-president/795796/43 "2017-09-09T17:25:28Z")
So Millenial men (that phrase is begging for some jokes, BTW) are more sexist than their fathers and grandfathers? ---
**Author:** ![Velocity](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/velocity/32/18006_2.png) [@Velocity](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Velocity)\ **Post date:** [September 9, 2017, 5:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-hillarys-camp-focus-too-much-on-her-potentially-being-the-first-female-president/795796/44 "2017-09-09T17:41:30Z")
> [@Richard\_Parker](#): > > When these people say “focus on,” they mean “mention.” Well, yes - you focus on things by mentioning them. ---
**Author:** ![Spice\_Weasel](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/spice_weasel/32/5435_2.png) [@Spice\_Weasel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spice_Weasel)\ **Post date:** [September 9, 2017, 5:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-hillarys-camp-focus-too-much-on-her-potentially-being-the-first-female-president/795796/45 "2017-09-09T17:43:20Z")
> [@HurricaneDitka](#): > > So Millenial men (that phrase is begging for some jokes, BTW) are more sexist than their fathers and grandfathers? According to some studies, yes. ---
**Author:** ![Lantern](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/d26b3c/32.png) [@Lantern](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lantern)\ **Post date:** [September 9, 2017, 5:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-hillarys-camp-focus-too-much-on-her-potentially-being-the-first-female-president/795796/46 "2017-09-09T17:53:22Z")
> [@Spice\_Weasel](#): > > Unfortunately the newer generations seem to be even worse than the older generations, as 41% of millennial men report they are uncomfortable with women as US Senators. > > [Are U.S. Millennial Men Just as Sexist as Their Dads?](https://hbr.org/2016/06/are-u-s-millennial-men-just-as-sexist-as-their-dads) If you look at the [methodology](https://www.pershing.com/_global-assets/images/pershing-americans-crave-new-kind-of-leader-infographic-1.jpg), it is based on an online survey and not a representative sample. I wouldn’t take the numbers too seriously. ---
**Author:** ![John\_Mace](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/john_mace/32/185_2.png) [@John\_Mace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_Mace)\ **Post date:** [September 9, 2017, 5:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-hillarys-camp-focus-too-much-on-her-potentially-being-the-first-female-president/795796/47 "2017-09-09T17:59:44Z")
> [@Lantern](#): > > If you look at the [methodology](https://www.pershing.com/_global-assets/images/pershing-americans-crave-new-kind-of-leader-infographic-1.jpg), it is based on an online survey and not a representative sample. I wouldn’t take the numbers too seriously. Yeah, but according to online surveys, 93% of millenials agree that online surveys are perfectly acceptable data. ---
**Author:** ![Spice\_Weasel](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/spice_weasel/32/5435_2.png) [@Spice\_Weasel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spice_Weasel)\ **Post date:** [September 9, 2017, 6:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-hillarys-camp-focus-too-much-on-her-potentially-being-the-first-female-president/795796/48 "2017-09-09T18:06:07Z")
> [@Lantern](#): > > If you look at the [methodology](https://www.pershing.com/_global-assets/images/pershing-americans-crave-new-kind-of-leader-infographic-1.jpg), it is based on an online survey and not a representative sample. I wouldn’t take the numbers too seriously. There seemed to be some statistical adjustment to address sampling bias, but the minutiae of study methodology are admittedly beyond my grasp. We may not be able to conclude exactly what percentage of milennial men are sexist, but we can at least conclude it is a greater percentage than previous generations within this sample, no? Also, let’s think about the ways in which the sample may or may not be representative. Which sort of men would be more likely to take such a survey? Men who have access to the internet, men with some sort of professional stake in gender relations in the workplace, men who have strong feelings one way or another. So if it’s biased, it’s probably biased toward white collar professional men. Even given methodological considerations the data are troubling. ---
**Author:** ![Spice\_Weasel](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/spice_weasel/32/5435_2.png) [@Spice\_Weasel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spice_Weasel)\ **Post date:** [September 9, 2017, 6:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-hillarys-camp-focus-too-much-on-her-potentially-being-the-first-female-president/795796/49 "2017-09-09T18:10:16Z")
Let’s also consider that people tend to underreport on surveys either negative experiences or things that might make them look bad. Underreporting is a notorious problem for researchers in social psychology and sociology fields. People don’t like to admit to being racist, sexist, or having used drugs, or having been raped or abused, even on anonymous surveys. ---
**Author:** ![Pantastic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/3bc359/32.png) [@Pantastic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Pantastic)\ **Post date:** [September 9, 2017, 6:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-hillarys-camp-focus-too-much-on-her-potentially-being-the-first-female-president/795796/50 "2017-09-09T18:16:55Z")
> [@DWMarch](#): > > Agreed, I always thought her campaign slogan should have been “It’s her turn!” rather than “I’m With Her”. You are probably joking, but the slogan “It’s her turn” was seriously floated by her campaign staff, so even though it wasn’t adopted it’s not surprising that the entitled attitude spilled out into her messaging. ---
**Author:** ![AK84](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/85e7bf/32.png) [@AK84](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AK84)\ **Post date:** [September 9, 2017, 6:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-hillarys-camp-focus-too-much-on-her-potentially-being-the-first-female-president/795796/51 "2017-09-09T18:35:37Z")
> [@John\_Mace](#): > > Pithy and on point! 🙂 > > The whole country was focused on her being a woman, and the press played it up a lot. I think people are projecting that on Clinton and her campaign. Other than that rather embarrassing moment with Madeline Albright\*, I think Clinton and her campaign tried to stay away from the whole woman angle as much as possible. > > \*There’s a a special place in hell for women who don’t support each other (to paraphrase) :dubious: Other than the fact that every criticism of her was countered with some variation of “sexist”! And they stayed away from it pretty ineffectively and more or less quit doing so when the Access Hollywood tapes came out\*. Besides those two things, yeah they never did. Another mistake was calling her the most qualified candidate in histort which was i) obviously untrue and ii)ensured her opponents made her actual lack of real accomplishments in those roles an issue. - I still think if said tape had not comeout, Hillary might have won. She had spent the previous six weeks campaigning on the issues rather than her earlier strategy of “pointing at Trump and saying, “seriously”?” Which she then resumed with a venegance, ---
**Author:** ![Spice\_Weasel](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/spice_weasel/32/5435_2.png) [@Spice\_Weasel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spice_Weasel)\ **Post date:** [September 9, 2017, 6:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-hillarys-camp-focus-too-much-on-her-potentially-being-the-first-female-president/795796/52 "2017-09-09T18:48:37Z")
Let me be real clear on AK84’s point. A tape is revealed showing a US Presidential candidate openly boasting about committing sexual assault (describing it exactly as he’s been accused of doing it since 1996) and it lost the election… For Hillary. The fact that anyone cast a vote for him after that is about as damning an indictment of US attitudes toward women as any survey. ---
**Author:** ![Little\_Nemo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/little_nemo/32/3120_2.png) [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)\ **Post date:** [September 9, 2017, 6:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-hillarys-camp-focus-too-much-on-her-potentially-being-the-first-female-president/795796/53 "2017-09-09T18:55:50Z")
Here’s the reality: Trump ran a much more “identity” based campaign than Clinton did. It’s just that white men don’t see themselves as a identity. If they see a candidate trying to win votes from black voters or hispanic voters or women voters or gay voters, they call it identity politics. But when a candidate tries to win votes from white male voters, it’s somehow not identity politics. White men see their interests as just the interests of regular people. And it worked. Trump aimed his campaign at the identity group that gets more votes than any other group. So he won. ---
**Author:** ![MyFootsZZZ](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/myfootszzz/32/12580_2.png) [@MyFootsZZZ](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MyFootsZZZ)\ **Post date:** [September 9, 2017, 8:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-hillarys-camp-focus-too-much-on-her-potentially-being-the-first-female-president/795796/54 "2017-09-09T20:35:51Z")
> [@Gyrate](#): > > What exactly would you like explained? There was certainly a small but nasty coterie of Bernie supporters with a serious sexist bent, who were condemned by Sanders himself. The term itself was a media invention that took on a life of its own, albeit with a considerable amount of assistance from Clintonians. In the end, like “deplorables”, it came to signify a much broader and much less well-defined group than it originally had. I’m not sure what else I can say. > **AK84**. I was very much unaware of this. Do you have any examples of a “Bernie Bro” being sexist? Not that I doubt you, it’s just most Bernie supporters I know are not sexist in the slightest. That’s not Bernie’s style, and I don’t know if you could call said person a real Bernie supporter. ---
**Author:** ![MyFootsZZZ](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/myfootszzz/32/12580_2.png) [@MyFootsZZZ](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MyFootsZZZ)\ **Post date:** [September 9, 2017, 8:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-hillarys-camp-focus-too-much-on-her-potentially-being-the-first-female-president/795796/55 "2017-09-09T20:40:39Z")
> [@Little\_Nemo](#): > > Here’s the reality: Trump ran a much more “identity” based campaign than Clinton did. It’s just that white men don’t see themselves as a identity. If they see a candidate trying to win votes from black voters or hispanic voters or women voters or gay voters, they call it identity politics. But when a candidate tries to win votes from white male voters, it’s somehow not identity politics. White men see their interests as just the interests of regular people. > > And it worked. Trump aimed his campaign at the identity group that gets more votes than any other group. So he won. I’ll bite and say that may be true. (Of course not all white men). And a lot of white women too. ---
**Author:** ![HeweyLogan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/heweylogan/32/547_2.png) [@HeweyLogan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/HeweyLogan)\ **Post date:** [September 9, 2017, 8:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-hillarys-camp-focus-too-much-on-her-potentially-being-the-first-female-president/795796/56 "2017-09-09T20:54:47Z")
> [@Spice\_Weasel](#): > > The fact that anyone cast a vote for him after that is about as damning an indictment of US attitudes toward women as any survey. And when people voted for Bill Clinton was that same “indictment of US attitudes toward woman” in play? Or was that different, back then. ---
**Author:** ![E-DUB](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/e-dub/32/403_2.png) [@E-DUB](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/E-DUB)\ **Post date:** [September 9, 2017, 9:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-hillarys-camp-focus-too-much-on-her-potentially-being-the-first-female-president/795796/57 "2017-09-09T21:01:51Z")
She focused on it to an appropriate degree for the candidate. The media focused on it to an appropriate degree for the media. People added those up and it seemed excessive. ---
**Author:** ![AK84](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/85e7bf/32.png) [@AK84](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AK84)\ **Post date:** [September 10, 2017, 9:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-hillarys-camp-focus-too-much-on-her-potentially-being-the-first-female-president/795796/58 "2017-09-10T09:50:14Z")
```php ``` > [@Spice\_Weasel](#): > > Let me be real clear on AK84’s point. A tape is revealed showing a US Presidential candidate openly boasting about committing sexual assault (describing it exactly as he’s been accused of doing it since 1996) and it lost the election… For Hillary. > > The fact that anyone cast a vote for him after that is about as damning an indictment of US attitudes toward women as any survey. Oh come off it. Trump is a horrible human being? Yeah that was known well before the Access Hollywood tape emerged. People were still voting for him. ---
**Author:** ![Hector\_St\_Clare](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/b5ac83/32.png) [@Hector\_St\_Clare](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hector_St_Clare)\ **Post date:** [September 10, 2017, 3:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-hillarys-camp-focus-too-much-on-her-potentially-being-the-first-female-president/795796/59 "2017-09-10T15:05:23Z")
> [@AK84](#): > > I think her “my turn, damnit” attitude probably caused more issues than her gender. If she runs again in 2020 (and I kind of suspect she’ll take a shot at it) her campaign slogan should really be “It’s Still My Turn”. ---
**Author:** ![Evan\_Drake](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/b487fb/32.png) [@Evan\_Drake](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Evan_Drake)\ **Post date:** [September 10, 2017, 3:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-hillarys-camp-focus-too-much-on-her-potentially-being-the-first-female-president/795796/60 "2017-09-10T15:28:39Z")
Mrs. Merkel is by no means an inspiring leader, but I should think a large majority of voters would have found an American born Angela fine regardless of her sex and would have chosen such a woman over both of the two dumbos presented in 2016. It’s not like most of the rest of the world is less sexist that the USA, yet many from Sri Lanka to Pakistan to Britain have had female leaders. You just have to choose an undislikable candidate [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-hillarys-camp-focus-too-much-on-her-potentially-being-the-first-female-president/795796.md?page=2) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-hillarys-camp-focus-too-much-on-her-potentially-being-the-first-female-president/795796.md?page=4)