In asserting her marketing campaign for the Republican presidential nomination this week, Nikki Haley made a delicate reference to the historic nature of her candidacy. “I don’t put up with bullies,” Haley mentioned in a video that launched her bid to change into the primary feminine president of the U.S. “And whenever you sit back, it hurts them extra in the event you’re sporting heels.” Haley has loads of accomplishments, together with turning into the primary girl elected governor of South Carolina and representing the U.S. on the United Nations. However her introduction captured the balancing act girls – significantly conservative girls – usually navigate as they aspire to win the highest job in American politics.
They need to present toughness to show they’ll compete towards rivals who’re virtually all the time males for a job that has solely been held by males. However there’s additionally one thing of an invisible line that may’t be crossed for concern of being considered as too robust and repelling voters. “We’ve seen larger ranges of Republican girls working and successful in current elections,” mentioned Kelly Dittmar, director of analysis and a scholar on the Heart for American Girls and Politics at Rutgers College. “However what you additionally see these girls usually doing is working onerous to fulfill that double bind. … It’s like, ‘I’m robust, however I’m additionally female. I’m additionally assembly my form of female expectations.’”
Nikki Haley, former South Carolina governor and United Nations ambassador, takes the stage as she launches her 2024 presidential marketing campaign on Feb. 15, 2023, in In asserting her marketing campaign for the Republican presidential nomination this week, Nikki Haley made a delicate reference to the historic nature of her candidacy. “I don’t put up with bullies,” Haley mentioned in a video that launched her bid to change into the primary feminine president of the U.S. “And whenever you sit back, it hurts them extra in the event you’re sporting heels.”
Haley has loads of accomplishments, together with turning into the primary girl elected governor of South Carolina and representing the U.S. on the United Nations. However her introduction captured the balancing act girls – significantly conservative girls – usually navigate as they aspire to win the highest job in American politics. They need to present toughness to show they’ll compete towards rivals who’re virtually all the time males for a job that has solely been held by males. However there’s additionally one thing of an invisible line that may’t be crossed for concern of being considered as too robust and repelling voters.
“We’ve seen larger ranges of Republican girls working and successful in current elections,” mentioned Kelly Dittmar, director of analysis and a scholar on the Heart for American Girls and Politics at Rutgers College. “However what you additionally see these girls usually doing is working onerous to fulfill that double bind. … It’s like, ‘I’m robust, however I’m additionally female. I’m additionally assembly my form of female expectations.’” Sexism in politics is hardly restricted to at least one political social gathering, with girls in public life usually underneath stress to seem “likable” in ways in which aren’t anticipated of males. Throughout a Democratic major debate in 2008, a male moderator pressed Hillary Clinton on the “likability challenge” in relation to her rival, Barack Obama.
“I don’t assume I’m that dangerous,” Clinton responded. Obama broke in to say, “You’re likeable sufficient, Hillary.” Extra just lately, outstanding Democratic girls have additionally sought to mission toughness of their campaigns. Sharice Davids, a former blended martial arts fighter, sparred in a 2018 advert for a Kansas congressional seat. Amy McGrath, who challenged Senate Republican chief Mitch McConnell in 2020, highlighted her expertise as a Marine fighter pilot.
However the dynamics are completely different, Dittmar mentioned, in Republican politics, the place voters are inclined to have extra conventional views about stereotypical gender roles. That may incentivize Republican girls looking for high places of work to reveal each their toughness and femininity. She famous how former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin launched herself as a vice presidential nominee in 2008 with a joke evaluating hockey mothers to a pitbull with lipstick.
“It’s one other method to cue” to voters that candidates are each robust and female, Dittmar mentioned. Haley’s formal announcement in Charleston, South Carolina, on Wednesday was peppered with examples. A congressman described Haley as main with “an iron fist in a velvet glove.” The mom of Otto Warmbier, the younger American who died after he was held and tortured in North Korea, mentioned Haley taught her easy methods to battle but additionally checked on her with the compassion of a fellow mother. And Haley herself referred to as on voters to ship “a tough-as-nails girl to the White Home.”
Haley is one among solely 5 Republican girls to launch outstanding campaigns for the workplace this century. By comparability, 12 Democratic girls have been outstanding candidates, together with six in 2020, in response to CAWP. The 12 embody Clinton because the social gathering’s 2016 nominee and a 2020 candidate, Kamala Harris, who grew to become the nation’s first feminine vice chairman. Girls face different hurdles their male friends don’t, together with on-line abuse that overwhelmingly targets girls, particularly girls of color, and sometimes-sexist media protection.