Political Communication F18: Women in Politics – Tuesday, October 16th (Blog #7)

Tuesday, October 9, 2018

Women in Politics – Tuesday, October 16th (Blog #7)

A record number of women are seeking office in 2018. Based on the readings for this week, what are some of the challenges facing female candidates? How is the current political climate (ex: Kavanaugh confirmation, #MeToo movement) impacting female candidates' political messaging and campaign strategies? Finally, does the media's framing of 2018 as the new "Year of the Woman" help or hurt women politicians? Be sure to cite at least two of the readings/viewings for this week to support your answer.

39 comments:

UnknownOctober 14, 2018 at 8:32 AM
DiSalvo 1
After completing this week’s readings, it became clear to me why there aren’t more women in politics: women politicians face challenges male politicians never have to consider. One major struggle women have to deal with is how to frame their campaign. If they run on women’s issues, it seems as if they are overlooking issues that affect everyone. If they aren’t feminist enough, they lose the progressive women’s vote. If they simply ignore gender and try to run on ethics, “Women candidates are often placed on a ‘virtue pedestal’ by the media and the public, only to be toppled by heightened scrutiny. (Lee and Walsh). In her book, What Happened, Hillary Clinton speaks about the challenges of being a woman a politics:"If we're too composed, we're cold and fake. But if we say what we think without caution, we get slammed for it. Can you blame us for feeling like we can't win, no matter what we do"(Clinton)?
The current political climate can be viewed as both a positive and a negative for female candidates. Brett Kavanaugh’s confirmation, while devastating to many sexual assault survivors and advocates, can serve as a “rallying point” for women candidates. Voters frustrated by Kavanaugh’s confirmation and Blassey-Ford’s treatment by the Republican male members of the Senate may vote for women candidates hoping to affect change. John Pitney Jr., a politics professor at Claremont McKenna College said, “Either implicitly or explicitly, the message will be that we need more women in office to end the toleration of sexual assault and sexual harassment”(Pitney as qtd. in Lee and Walsh). The #Metoo movement will also serve as a uniting factor for female candidates. Because of the movement, Americans have less tolerance for bullying, especially directed at women. In fact, #Metoo “may work to the benefit of women candidates targeted by unfair attacks from opponents and the media. Today, women everywhere are finding a powerful, grassroots movement rising to their defense”(Lee and Walsh). Women candidates are using these movements to shape their platforms. For example, Pearl Kim is running for Congress in Pennsylvania’s 5th District and is a sexual assault survivor. In her ads, she highlights her time as a special prosecutor when she served as “a fierce advocate for victims of child physical and sexual abuse, domestic violence, and rape”(“Meet Pearl”). Kim is running as a Republican, but by identifying as a defendant of sexual assault victims, she is appealing to women from all parties and using the energy of #Metoo and Kavanaugh’s confirmation as a backdrop for her campaign.
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UnknownOctober 14, 2018 at 8:32 AM
I think framing this year as “The Year of the Woman” ultimately will hurt women politicians. First of all, it is promoting the same kind of overconfidence that led to Hillary Clinton’s demise. If people already are assuming women will win nationwide, there is no urgency to go out and vote. Also, this term is reducing women to a single voting bloc, when in reality women all vote differently. The term “year of the woman” has taken on a liberal connotation, and thus isolates women who may typically vote Republican. If women are looking for equality, they need to stop running on the fact that they are women, and start running on the things they can do to benefit all people, not just women. The term makes it seem like only women voters will benefit from women politicians. Women politicians need to run on the fact that, “Electing women to public office isn’t just good for women – it’s good for everyone and it’s good for democracy”(Terrell and Moses). Personally, I am a liberal, feminist woman and the term “Year of the Woman” validates that the concerns I have about the current political climate are being addressed. But in Trump’s America, I think the term is divisive, and that is the last thing we need right now.

Works Cited

Clinton, Hillary. What Happened. Simon and Schuster, New York, 2017.
Lee, Barbara, and Debbie Walsh. "How Gender is Shaping the 2018 Midterms.", 18 March 2018, 2018.
“Meet Pearl.” Pearl Kim for Congress, 2018, www.pearlkimforcongress.com/meet_pearl.
Terrell, Cynthia, and Anne Moses. "It's Time to Retire the "Year of the Woman".", 8 March 2018, 2018.

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UnknownOctober 14, 2018 at 3:54 PM
It is shocking, yet at the same time so empowering to see a record number of women seeking office in 2018, and ultimately taking a stance in general. There are so many challenges that female candidates are facing, that male candidates never have to even think about, such as the Kavanaugh confirmation, the #MeToo movement, etc. It amazes me how it’s 2018 and women are still fighting for their rights and their voices to be heard more than ever before.
One of the main problems that women seem to deal with when running for office, is the fact that everyone assumes that their entire campaign will solely revolve around “women’s issues”, therefore a lot of people lose interest in the campaign pretty fast. Relating to this, one of the articles from this week’s readings called “It’s Time to Retire The ‘Year of the Woman’, talks about how the question of “will this year be the next year of the woman?” is constantly brought up. With this record number of women stepping up this year to run for office, the question needs to come to an end. This article says “if we’re serious about increasing the number of women in politics, we have to stop asking ourselves if there will be another “Year of the Woman.” It’s time to turn our attention toward a more urgent question: What will it take to achieve enduring gender representation for women in politics, and how are we going to do it?” (Terrell and Moses).
Even though the Brett Kavanaugh incident is an unfortunate thing to occur and hear about, it’s sadly not the first time a sexual assault issue has happened. Although this time, this issue might actually be the reason for more women to step forward and vote or even be inspired to run for office. Unfortunately for female candidates, it is not uncommon that threats and harassment come with their everyday life. Some of those participating in running for office right now are actually already experiencing these kinds of threats and harassment already. In the article “For Female Candidates. Harassment and Threats Come Every Day”, it talks about how the abuse that is already common in many women’s everyday lives, can be even more amplified when it comes to political campaigns, especially if the candidate comes from a minority group (Astor). One of the examples this article used to show the abuse that females undergo during political elections where it is especially highlighted, was four days prior to the 2016 congressional primary in Erin Schrode’s Northern California district, she woke up to thousands of messages in her e-mail, cellphone, Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, etc. All of which suggested terrible threats such as gang-rape (Astor). “It has been two years since Ms. Schrode, now 27, lost her Democratic primary and moved on. But the abuse – never stopped” (Astor).
In the article “Brett Kavanaugh: How Sexual Assault Hearing Could Inspire More Women to Vote and Seek Elected Office”, some analysts believe that the record number of women that are running for elected office this year, which many of them are of color, could be sparked by “women disgruntled at how Republicans have continued to plow right through the hearings to get Kavanaugh confirmed despite Ford’s allegations” (Collins). From this point on in 2018, this may be the year that women come forward to start defending not only themselves and what they deserve, but what is wrong in this world as a whole and what needs to be fixed once and for all.
Works Cited:

Terrell, Cynthia and Anne Moses. "It's Time to Retire The ‘Year of the Woman.’" Refinery 29, 8 March 2018.

Astor, Maggie. "For Female Candidates, Harassment and Threats Come Every Day." New York Times, 24 Aug. 2018.

Collins, Eliza. "Brett Kavanaugh: How Sex Assault Hearing Could Inspire More Women to Vote and Seek Elected Office." USA Today, 27 Sept. 2018.
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UnknownOctober 14, 2018 at 6:57 PM
In 2018, the political climate is continuing to change, as a number of women will be running for office at the state and national level. As terrible as it is to admit, there are still a number of issues facing said candidates, which may keep some candidates from winning an election that they should. When it comes to male politicians in these races, two major concepts continue to reign supreme: experience and money. In the case of Las Vegas’ Chris Giunchigliani, however, she seems to have both of those concepts covered. She’s an experience politician, and has sunk $2 million into her campaign. And yet, she still faces adversity: “Ms. Giunchigliani now faces an uphill primary election here on Tuesday against the better-funded Mr. Sisolak — and while Mr. Reid was focused on ideology, she attributes some of the resistance to her campaign to her gender,” (Martin, Burns 2018). Even in the case of a successful woman candidate such as Giunchigliani, there’s still an unjust stigma surrounding her.

That being said, though there is still an unjust stigma surrounding female politicians in 2018 elections, that isn’t stopping them from trying. While the vile findings unearthed in the Brett Kavanaugh hearings offended decent people everywhere, it also acted as a source of motivation for women everywhere, of every racial and ethnic background. Women in America have begun to take the necessary steps toward toppling the establishment that confirmed Brett Kavanaugh into Congress: “A coalition of groups have launched projects to get more women to run for Congress and other elected offices. Several black women’s groups oppose Kavanaugh’s nomination and have vowed to make the push to stop his confirmation a campaign issue in the midterms, (Collins 2018). Women politicians have made the Brett Kavanaugh confirmation a prime point of their candidacies, and are using it as a rallying cry to gain support in their specific states or counties.

When you look across the board at the record number of women running for office, the term “Year of the Woman” does seem appropriate. From an outsider’s perspective, it appears that women are breaking down barriers everyday, and constantly making strides towards the gender equality they so rightly deserve. But not so fast, outsider. The term “Year of the Woman” is being used both prematurely and inaccurately: “Not only does the term reduce half the population to a special interest…it sends the misleading message that [women have] somehow reached the finish line on gender parity, or that [women] have had our moment,” (Terrell, Moses 2018). Women in politics are trying to use their campaigns to spread a number of messages, but none are more important than the one that Terrell and Moses just mentioned. The fight for equality is only just beginning, and the best way to expediate that process is electing women into positions where they can make a difference.
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Kaycie RomanelloOctober 14, 2018 at 9:10 PM
This midterm election has really pushed me to pay more attention to politics. A lot has happened over the past year which has resulted in more women running for a spot in office. Although this is a good thing, women are still fighting to be equal to their male opponents in this race. In other words, one of the main issues that female candidates face today is how they portray themselves. For instance, people assume that all female candidates are going to be democrats with a background in only women issues. This makes running as a female way more difficult than a male running for office. Chris Giunchigliani, who is running for senator of Nevada this year, states a great example as to the difference in males and females running for office: “Sometimes a man can just say, ‘I’m a businessman’ whether they are or aren’t. And no one questions that, whereas a woman has to still prove it” (Martin, Burns). This reminds me of when I was researching my candidate for the project, Carly Fiorina. She was a businesswoman as her first career, but people online were asking where she was working. This would not happen to any male candidate because people “trust” that they are telling the truth. With females, they have to do much more work to get people to hear them than males do. Ultimately, the issue here is trust. People seem to have more trust in males in office than women. In my opinion, I think this happens because women are the underdogs. If we keep stepping up and trying our best to push women into office, I think time will heal this issue, at least more than it is now.
Furthermore, the current political climate is impacting female candidates’ political messaging and campaign strategies because that is what is popular today. When a woman is running in a political race, I feel like more people are prone to ask them about the current sexual harassment issues than they would ask males. In my opinion, people believe that women are running to solely fix this issue and not anything else. This is what is hurting female candidates. When they say that they are running for a spot in office, people assume that they are going to try to fix only these issues. I think the best thing for a female candidate to do is focus in on issues that people do not think women focus on: economics, immigration, etc. Yes, I do think that this gives women a leg up in the race, but not a big enough leg. An article written by Gender Watch 2018, stated that female republican voters do not really take the harassment issues as serious as we think. “After the conclusion of the Senate Confirmation Hearings, which featured powerful testimony from Dr. Christine Blasey Ford, 70 percent of Republican women continued to support his confirmation” (Dittmar). This quote clearly shows that people assume women care about this issue, but not all women seem to care for this as their top priority. If a female was running solely on these issues, they would miss a huge amount of women. Moreover, if 70% of women who are republican say that they would still let Kavanaugh into office, that decreases this importance tremendously. This is only one issue in our society today, women need to push their other views onto people in order for them to see that they are there to fix more than only women issues.

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UnknownOctober 15, 2018 at 11:12 AM
Nardone 1

I think the two most important challenges facing female candidates are fundraising and harassment. Politics runs on money. Without it a candidate can’t buy ads, pay for signage or pay staff. I am not surprised that Democratic women are behind men when it comes to fundraising. In the U.S. donating money to a political campaign is seen as speech, and the gap between male and female candidates speaks volumes about who has money in this country. In their Washington Post piece, Michelle Ye Hee Lee and Anu Narayanswamy discuss the difference in money raised across the board in the midterms. They found that Democratic women, on average, are $120,000 behind men, and Republican women are $100,000 ahead of men. The GOP and its major donors are throwing massive amounts of money behind Republican women so it can fix a serious image problem. Last week when we were looking at television ads, the reading mentioned that Clinton continually out-fundraised Trump, and she spent far more than he did. I’m curious where all of those major donors are now. There is a serious disconnect between activism during the midterm and presidential elections. In the Vice documentary about Katie Hill, we saw how difficult it was for her to fundraise in the beginning and how hard it was to initially score the bigger donors.

Another major challenge for female candidates is staying focused while people are treating you with physical and sexual harm. Not only is it hard to feel safe, but also it is hard to get more women to run when they know they are going to be constantly harassed. The New York Times piece by Maggie Astor shows how disgusting and terrifying the harassment can be. Several female candidates in the article came forward to share what happened to them while seeking office. To me, the worst part was when Kim Weaver's opponent said; “ Democrats drove her out of the race — not R’s. Death threats likely didn’t happen but a fabrication,”(Astor, 2018). These women are facing threats of rape and death and their opponents are accusing them of making it up. Instead of being able to buy TV ads, they have to buy private security. Instead of using social media to reach voters, they have to police their pages for threats. It’s an extra hurdle that women, regardless of party, have to deal with that men do not.
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Brianna CaponiOctober 15, 2018 at 2:40 PM
Within the current political landscape, we are seeing a spike in the number of females running for positions in office. Just as political historians will identify 2017 as the year of the “#MeToo” movement, they will soon find that the surge in the amount of females running for office will define the midterm election period. This comes as no surprise, especially now after the Kavanaugh confirmation controversy. Evidently, women are facing many challenges in society today and as such, it is appropriate that those running in office would face them as well.
Not only will female candidates face societal challenges throughout the campaign and election process, but they will face strategical problems as well. According to the NY Times article A Surge of Women Candidates, but Crowded Primaries and Tough Races Await, “A large percentage of the women now running for open seats are in districts that favor the other party. And many female candidates are clustered in the same districts, meaning many will be eliminated in this spring and summer’s primaries.” Although this article was written in May, it is proven true by the amount of females dropping.
In order to understand why this spike in female candidates is politically significant, it is important to know who these women are, and the NY Times article states that they, “…[tilt] largely toward democrats – at the start of this year, the number of Democratic women seeking House seats was up 146 percent from the same point in 2016; Republicans, it was up 35 percent. And many of the women have less experience in government and politics than those who ran for Congress in the past.” This is due mostly to the current political climate, as we are now in the Trump era, I feel that people think it is more approachable to become president than it once was seen. In addition, the Trump, his nomination for the SCOTUS and the following accusation of sexual assault has caused a tension among men and women in politics that is unrivaled in my lifetime. This being said, I think female candidates are capitalizing on this, and identifying more so with women and branding themselves as a woman before anything else. Hillary Clinton used this, some say not as aggressively as she should have, but the opposite will be true with future female political candidates, especially from the Left. According to the Washington Post article, These women won their primaries. Will they be elected in November?, “The wave of female candidates could result in more women than ever in the halls of power. Women have never made up more than one-fourth of the House or the Senate, and there have never been more than nine female governors serving at the same time.” This new wave of women running for positions of power is important and empowering however, it was caused by the media framing 2018 as the “Year of the Woman”. This messaging does not help female politicians and does not help women. By saying it is the year of the woman, you’re insinuating that women have only just come to power and had the ability to speak out. Women have and always will have this ability and it is important to note than this could be seen as extremely anti-feminist, as it does not demand equality but special recognition over other groups.
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Lauren SchreiberOctober 15, 2018 at 6:08 PM
In the last few years, the United States have seen many women running for positions in government, which happens to be a primarily male dominated field. Women are often seen as being incapable to hold a position in government due to long lasting stereotypes of women staying at home and men working. Harassment is not something new to most women, but, it seems that it becomes worse when they try to run for a political position. It is especially worse when the woman is from a minority group: “It becomes so normalized, the types of things that people say,” said Mya Whitaker, 27, a Democrat running for City Council in Oakland, Calif. “Being a black woman and existing, in some cases, is enough to piss people off” (New York Times). Even though men face harassment as well, it is usually sexualized when it is about a woman (New York Times). Lots of women do not feel safe. They are being harassed online and in person. Women have to prove themselves in many situations where a guy would not have to. The Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh confirmation will definitely impact female candidate’s political messaging and campaign strategies. Many women were enraged with his confirmation despite the allegation of him sexually assaulting a woman many years back in school: "It's likely that many Democratic women will use the Kavanaugh nomination as a rallying point," said John J. Pitney Jr., a politics professor at Claremont McKenna College. "Either implicitly or explicitly, the message will be that we need more women in office to end the toleration of sexual assault and sexual harassment” (USA Today).
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Lauren SchreiberOctober 15, 2018 at 6:09 PM
The #MeToo movement against sexual assault will also get more women to run for positions of elected office. This year, a record number of women are running for positions, many of them being women of color (USA Today). Now more than ever, women are not only more incline to vote, they are more likely to run for positions of elected office. Also, President Donald Trump is known for verbally abusing women. Females are standing up for themselves and saying how they are not what they are described as. Women’s rights have been under a lot of scrutiny lately, and men are not as likely to stand up for them as a woman would be. Women believe that men cannot accurately represent their needs due to the fact that they are not women themselves. That is why many women feel there needs to be a rise in female political figures: But even if every woman on a ballot wins her race on Nov. 6, women would still hold less than 25 percent of congressional seats nationwide. “Achieving gender parity will take more than one cycle,” said Debbie Walsh, director of the Center for American Women and Politics at Rutgers University. Having more women run, like this year, is the only way to change that, she said” (AZ Central). I think the term “Year of the Woman” is harmful to women in politics. In an article written by Cynthia Terrell and Anne Moses on Refinery, is says, “Not only does the term reduce half the population to a special interest group — in the words of Senator Barbara Mikulski, “We’re not a fad, a fancy, or a year” — it sends the misleading message that we’ve somehow reached the finish line on gender parity, or that we have had our moment. Nothing could be further from the truth” (Refinery). Even being a woman myself, the idea gets tiring. Women do not need this huge spotlight on them to make a change. Small groups around the country train women to run for offices which is fine, however, I do not think it needs a ton of media attention because it becomes overdone and intimidating to others. Women have been doing a fantastic job moving forward and there is still a lot more to do.

Works Cited:
Astor, Maggie. "For Female Candidates, Harassment and Threats Come Every Day." New York Times, 24 Aug. 2018.

Collins, Eliza. "Brett Kavanaugh: How Sex Assault Hearing Could Inspire More Women to Vote and Seek Elected Office." USA Today, 27 Sept. 2018.

Terrell, Cynthia and Anne Moses. "It's Time to Retire The ‘Year of the Woman.’" Refinery 29, 8 March 2018.

Woodull, Candy. "126 Women Are on Pennsylvania's Ballot and You Might Be Surprised Why They're Running." York Daily Record, 8 Oct. 2018.

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Michael ClementOctober 15, 2018 at 6:11 PM
As a record number of women seek public office positions in 2018, they face a whole range of challenges- most of which their male politician counterparts never see themselves. These extra issues women face during their campaigns all stem from one thing: their gender. Unfortunately, even in today’s society there are still people who are uncomfortable about the idea of a woman in a seat of power. Sexists around the country constantly bombard women with insults and threats because they fear the change they will bring. Kim Weaver, a democrat who ran against Steve King last year, is an example of one of the many female politicians who receive this sickening onslaught of comments. She felt like she was trapped as these insults bombarded her just for being in the public eye: “I’m normally a pretty brave person, but when you feel like you’re in a fishbowl and you don’t know who it is that’s throwing rocks at you, it’s disconcerting. You don’t know if it’s somebody sitting in his mother’s basement in Florida or if it’s a gun-happy white supremacist who hates you who lives a block away” (Astor 2018).
In this current political climate, the women voting bloc has been arguably one of the more outraged demographics and have been the most outspoken. This has been the case far before the Kavanaugh hearings, Alexandra De Luca, a spokeswoman for Emily’s List claims: “Women have already been energized to take action since Trump's first day in office. They marched in the millions, they took to town halls to protest the GOP's Obamacare repeal bill and their tax scam, and they're running for office in record numbers” (Collins 2018). I think that this idea of conveying urgency to make the changes Americans demand and reminding voters of the comradery they demonstrated in the Women’s Marches and other protests is a great angle for female candidates to play off of in their campaigns. A good message to tell voters is that they are the driving force to make these changes and that using this same fire and energy to vote by the masses is the ultimate chance to see these changes through.
I feel like media outlets calling 2018 the “Year of the Woman” is a double edged sword for women politicians running for office this November. I see where the media is coming from and appreciate their exposure of this idea of women breaking the mold and wanting to make a difference in office. That being said, the fact that they have coined this as a big spectacle is a little demeaning to a degree. As much as this special coverage spreads awareness of this movement of women running for office in record numbers, at the end of the day these women just want to be seen as equal to their male politician counterparts. Jess King, a nonprofit executive running to represent Pennsylvania’s 11th district, told reporters, “I’m not running because I’m a woman. I’m running because I care about issues” (Woodall 2018). Senator Barbara Mikulski also chimed in on “The Year of the Woman”, and said, “We’re not a fad, a fancy, or a year” (Terrell, Moses 2018). My only critique of all this media coverage is that some outlets are covering this out of novelty. I think that it is important for them to focus more on the precedent that these women are setting instead. They are pioneering the future of American politics and gender equality across the nation, and the media is being a little near-sighted by not talking about that.
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Sophia ToppoOctober 15, 2018 at 7:55 PM
Sophia Toppo
Blog 7

The amount of female candidates running for state offices and Congress has risen in the upcoming elections due to a variety of different reasons, but they still face challenges against their male opponents. These challenges involve how men are perceived to be more experience than women and they also have financial advantages. According to an article in The New York Times, Chris Giunchigliani has plans to run for governor of Nevada in the 2018 elections and the article stated, “Ms. Giunchigliani now faces an uphill primary election here on Tuesday against the better-funded Mr. Sisolak — and while Mr. Reid was focused on ideology, she attributes some of the resistance to her campaign to her gender”(Martin & Burns, 1). She then argued that, “Sometimes a man can just say, ‘I’m a businessman’ whether they are or aren’t. And no one questions that, whereas a woman has to still prove it”(Martin & Burns, 1). Despite the fact that she is a very experienced politician, she faces challenges in building support financially and also proving credibility to run for office, which most men don’t have to do.
Despite these challenges, the rise of female candidates is higher than ever in the upcoming elections due to a variety of different influences going on in the world. With the current sexual assault allegations towards Brett Kavanaugh, it lead to a rise in female candidates because, "It's likely that many Democratic women will use the Kavanaugh nomination as a rallying point…we need more women in office to end the toleration of sexual assault and sexual harassment”(Collins, 1). This is the idea of equal gender representation. In order to represent the female population, there needs to be females in state offices and congress to represent them. We can’t keep having old, white men making decisions for women.
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UnknownOctober 15, 2018 at 9:18 PM
There’s been a surge in the number of female candidate’s running for house seats. Because women currently hold less seats than men, they are in a difficult strategical position. Historically, men have held more political office and power. Recent remarks by the president and other social movements like the #MeToo movement have sparked an increase in female political candidacy. Will it be a strong and steady energy and enthusiasm or will it crash quickly? One of the challenges that women running will face is keeping their numbers up for the long run: “We are not going to see, in one cycle, an end to the underrepresentation of women in American politics that we’ve seen for 250 years,” she said. “The concern is, we need this energy and engagement to be here for the long haul. This is a marathon, not a sprint,” (Lu, Zernike). Another challenge that these women face is inexperience, a large number of the women who are running are politically untested. There are races some candidates are emerging in that may be far reaches. “As much as I love the story of all these new women who have emerged — and there will be some who make it — it’s a harder road,” said Ms. Walsh, of the Center for American Women and Politics. “And because they’re not as experienced, they also made choices to run in places that I think some of them, if they were seasoned political women, would say, ‘That’s not an opportunity for me,’” (Lu, Zernike). The female candidate’s numbers will drop after loses from races that are difficult take overs. If women want to balance the number of women to men in the house, female candidates need to be in it for the long haul.

The current political climate is what’s molding the strategy and messaging of the female candidates. Donald Trump makes disrespectful remarks towards women and entire female candidates campaigns can be based partly or entirely by that. One female talked about Trump’s misogyny as motivation: “Ms. Sheehan said she was inspired to run by what she saw as the misogyny of President Trump’s campaign; she recalled sobbing next to her daughter’s crib the night he was elected. But her campaign, she said, is more about broadening economic opportunity and reducing the influence of money in politics,” (Lu, Zernike). This could demonstrate that the trend of higher female candidacy could sprout from some level of Trump resentment.

Recently, the media has been calling 2018 the ‘year of the women’. This may not be the best thing for female candidacy in the long run. It may imply that women have already made it and that the fight is won. The media may want to change its phrasing to frame female candidacy in a better light: “It’s time to turn our attention toward a more urgent question: What will it take to achieve enduring gender representation for women in politics, and how are we going to do it?” (Moses, Terrell). It is important that women are represented in political office more equally. It’s more important now than ever to figure out how women can get into and stay in political office for the long-run.

Works Cited:

Terrell, Cynthia and Anne Moses. "It's Time to Retire The ‘Year of the Woman.’" Refinery 29, 8 March 2018.

Zernike, Kate and Denise Lu. "A Surge of Women Candidates, but Crowded Primaries and Tough Races Await." New York Times, 12 May 2018.
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UnknownOctober 15, 2018 at 10:02 PM
Lindsey Guadagni

In 2018, a record number of Women are seeking office. The #MeToo movement helped define 2017, the surging number of female politician candidates have defined the November midterm races. More than half the current female candidates for house and senate are challenging incumbents who almost always win. Some of these female candidates are running on very popular millennial campaign strategies. For example one of the most known millennial campaign race candidates is Kate Hill from California 25th district. Why? Because Kate Hill was running in the “Year of the Women” and is in the progressive democratic party which is a very millennial party. Also because she is a victim of harassment just like other Women candidates. Women in politics face massive amounts of hate and harassment from sexist people all over the United States. Many Women in politics have to deal with anti-feminist groups of people that do not want them to succeed. Being a Women in politics especially after the recent Brett Kavanaugh issue is a brave thing and I commend the Women who are strong enough to run in political elections. After finishing this week reading I noticed some challenges facing female candidates. My favorite for this week was the New York Times article “ A Surge of Women Candidates, but Crowded Primaries and Tough Races Await” this article was informative and eye-catching with its moving pictures around its facts. One interesting fact that is also a challenge that Women in politics face was “If a woman wins in every district where one is running, 152 female voting members would make it to the House. That would nearly double their current share but men would still outnumber women by nearly two to one.”(Zernike, 2018). Another important issue is that Women lack the funds that some of the richer male candidates have. The media’s framing in 2018 of the “Year of the Women” I feel it could help get lots of female voters excited, but I also feel that it kinda puts those candidates into a “special interest group”. One quote from refinery29.com reflects the special interest group theory. “Not only does the term reduce half the population to a special interest group — in the words of Senator Barbara Mikulski, “We’re not a fad, a fancy, or a year” — it sends the misleading message that we’ve somehow reached the finish line on gender parity, or that we have had our moment. Nothing could be further from the truth.”(Terrell, 2018). I agree with this statement about how it limits the groups of people that could potentially vote for you. Women in politics have made a huge impact in today’s society. I am proud to be a Woman political science major and I look up to all of these strong Women and get excited to vote in upcoming elections because of them.

Citations:

Zernike, Kate, and Denise Lu. “A Surge of Women Candidates, but Crowded Primaries and Tough Races Await.” The New York Times, The New York Times, 12 May 2018, www.nytimes.com/interactive/2018/05/12/us/politics/women-midterm-elections.html?action=click&module=RelatedCoverage&pgtype=Article&region=Footer.

Terrell, Cynthia, et al. “It's Time To Retire The ‘Year of the Woman.’” 2018 Year Of The Woman, How To Elect More Women In US, 8 Mar. 2018, www.refinery29.com/2018/03/192817/women-running-for-office-2018-reflectus-coalition.
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UnknownOctober 15, 2018 at 10:32 PM
There are a record number amount of women running for an elected office this midterm election. These women are people of color, white, identify as LGBTQ, liberal, conservative, mothers, wives, nurses, teachers, military and everything else a woman can be. This year, 476 women have run for office. Many of these women are running against incumbents or are running for a party that does not usually have the vote of the people in that district. At the end of it all, even if a woman wins in every race where one is running, men would still hold two-thirds of the seats (Zernike, Lu). This is because even though there is a record number of women running for office, it still does not compare to the centuries or generations of men who have been running for office. This has much to do with how women seem to need more of a push to run for office than men do.

Women who are running for office this election season are claiming that they have been motivated by Donald Trump’s presidency and Brett Kavanaugh’s confirmation. This is because many women are tired of being treated poorly by men and to watch someone who has been deemed their a harasser by others shook women to run. I have known many women who have only been motivated to move away from a situation after they saw how it was effecting some else. A friend of mine had a boyfriend who was terrible to her for years and could only end the relationship after holding the proof in her hand that he objectified women who he saw every day in vulgar ways. The reason so many women are complacent until they realize that it is happening to other women is because harassment can feel like it comes with the job description of being a woman and women in politics feel it all the same. During The Year of the Woman, a hearing “held by an all-male, all-white committee, ‘spurred [Dianne Feinstein] to run, I can tell you that’” (Collins). It is the way that men treat women on the national stage that has inspired women to run for office in droves for the second time in our nation’s history.

To call this a second coming of “The Year of the Woman” is short sighted, though. I believe that this wave has staying power and that we will continue to see a steady increase of women running for elected office. This wave is amazingly diverse and I hope that we will continue to see that diversity overwhelm our voting ballots. Sexual harassment and assault have been defined (whereas during The Year of the Woman they were not) and women understand what to call the ways they are being treated. Being able to give a name to negative behaviors like gaslighting has given way for many women to address how they have been treated and act. This personal advocacy has only grown with the rise of social media and I think all of these factors combined will lead to more women running in two years and again in four. As a side note: as much as the media likes to throw the reasoning for women running onto males, I think that we are forgetting the impact that Hillary Clinton had on women and girls across the country. I think that we will see more of the confidence that she instilled in young women in eight to ten years.

Collins, Eliza. “Brett Kavanaugh: How Sex Assault Hearing Could Inspire More Women to Vote and Seek Elected Office.” USA Today, Gannett Satellite Information Network, 27 Sept. 2018, www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2018/09/27/brett-kavanaugh-how-hearing-could-inspire-more-women-seek-office/1437400002/.
Zernike, Kate, and Denise Lu. “A Surge of Women Candidates, but Crowded Primaries and Tough Races Await.” The New York Times, The New York Times, 12 May 2018, www.nytimes.com/interactive/2018/05/12/us/politics/women-midterm-elections.html?action=click&module=RelatedCoverage&pgtype=Article&region=Footer.
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Josh SilvermanOctober 15, 2018 at 11:33 PM
A lot of the challenges facing female candidates are ones that affect male candidates either to a much lesser degree or not at all. Take for instance appearance. Although Donald Trump gets criticized more than any other sitting President in recent memory and the press has gone after him for so many different things, his appearance is not talked about as much as Clinton’s was during the 2016 election. That includes his vocabulary, his mannerisms and his appearance. And that being said President Barack Obama had a fiasco when he wore a tan suit, but none of those criticisms come close to what female candidates have to endure. It could be seen during the 2016 election that Hillary’s appearance was so often talked about when it couldn’t have mattered less. It is one thing to go at Clinton for something that shouldn’t have been talked about like her email scandals, but what she wears and looks like should have no correlation to her being qualified to be President. It wasn’t just Clinton that had to endure this. The New York Times article, written by, Maggie Astor, talks about Erin Schrode still taking abuse after losing her Democratic primary over two years ago. Ms. Schrode is still getting harrased and people are suggesting things that they would never think to bring up to a male politician. In addition to people making “gang-rape” innuendos at her expense, the New York Times article mentions that, “But the abuse — a toxic sludge of online trolling steeped in misogyny and anti-Semitism that also included photoshopped images of her face stretched into a Nazi lampshade and references to “preheating the ovens” — never stopped.”

I think the current political climate surrounding the Kavanaugh confirmation has confirmed what a lot of people believed which is that we are still extremely far away from being a nation that treats men and women equally. While Kavanaugh was accused of sexual harassment and inappropriate behavior towards Dr. Ford, there were still Senators commenting on her looks and appearance. If the situation was to somehow be flipped that would never come into play. Eliza Collins of USA Today wrote in her article about the Kavanaugh hearings that, “Some analysts say that 2018 could see a similar boost in support for Democrats by women disgruntled at how Republicans have, as Majority Leader Mitch McConnell vowed, continued to “plow right through” the hearings to get Kavanaugh confirmed despite Ford's allegations.
This year, a record number of women are running for elected office, many of them women of color. A coalition of groups have launched projects to get more women to run for Congress and other elected offices. They also have started training programs.” It will surely be interesting to see what the results are after the midterms and if there was a direct result to the hearings and lack of respect shown by the Republicans.

While I don’t think that the #MeToo movement has played a big role in the current political climate, I think that our sitting president has played a huge role. I think this many misogynistic comments, along with his actions and the allegations against him, have inspired many women to want to run for office to change what we are currently facing.

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Kevin SlatteryOctober 16, 2018 at 2:36 AM
Kevin G. Slattery
Professor Lisa Burns
Strategic Communication in the Trump Era
15 October 2018
Blog Post #7
A record number of women ran for political office in 2018. This trend has led to an increased amount of issues for female candidates and their political aspirations. One of these issues is that female political candidates deal with harassment and threats from strangers simply because of their gender (Astor 1). For example, former Congressional candidate Erin Schrode encountered tens of thousands of negative comments on her social media accounts when she ran in a Northern California Democratic primary in 2016. This online trolling that she endured was essentially cyberbullying with loads of hateful comments that were misogynistic and anti-Semitic in nature (Astor 1). Even after she lost the Democratic primary in 2016, Erin Schrode still received even more hateful comments in the two years since the primary (Astor 1). There are female candidates as well as elected female politicians across the United States who have encountered blatant threats and harassment because of their gender. Problems like these make it difficult for women to run for office and actually serve to discourage women from running for office.
The current political climate is greatly impacting female candidates and how they are messaging to their audience. Recent events such as the Me Too movement and the Kavaungh sexual assault hearing have really influenced women to run for elected office. For example, many analysts have stated that the Kavaungh hearings may cause the Democrats to experience a large boost from women in the midterm elections (Collins 1). This may be especially true if the Democrats are able to garner many female candidates on the ballot come this November. John J. Pittney Jr., a politics professor at Claremont McKenna College, said, “It’s likely many Democratic women will use the Kavaungh hearing as a rallying point. Either implicitly or explicitly, the message will be that we need more women in office to end the toleration of sexual assault and sexual harassment (Collins 1).” There has already been a response to the Brett Kavaungh nomination by some women. For instance, many Black women’s groups who oppose the Brett Kavaungh nomination have already vowed to make the effort to stop his nomination a campaign issue during this year’s midterm cycle. With all that being said, I do feel the media framing of 2018 as the “Year of the woman” hurts women. There have been other years in the past were it was called the year of the woman. Using the phrase year of the woman only continues to support the narrative that women are not on equal footing with men. For women to finally be on equal footing with men, actions such as electing more women to government office will speak louder than words like year of the woman.
Works Cited
Astor, Maggie. “For Female Harassment and Threats Come Every Day.” The New York Times, The New York Times, 24 Aug. 2018, www.nytimes.com/2018/08/24/us/politics/women-harassment-elections.html.
Collins, Eliza. “Brett Kavaungh: How Sexual Assault Hearing Could Inspire More Women to Vote and Seek Elected Office.” USA Today, USA Today, 27 Sept. 2018, www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2018/09/27/brett-kavanaugh-how-hearing-could-inspire-more-women-seek-office/1437400002/.

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Nikita PoliakoffOctober 16, 2018 at 9:03 AM
The challenges facing women in the 2018 campaign are no less indicative of systematic suppression that has always been levied against women and POC’s in politics and other areas of civic life. It is hard to say what the specific systemic challenges are besides ones we can readily perceive, like campaign financing. Sure, many women are running against institutionally entrenched and financially endowed patriarchs, but it is the specific perception of women framed by either microaggressive or outwardly misogynist actions from male politicians that guides the political culture disenfranchising women today. As is written in NYT, “In Colorado, Cary Kennedy, a former state treasurer who would be the state’s first female governor, is battling Representative Jared Polis, a multimillionaire who has spent $10.5 million. In Michigan, Gretchen Whitmer, a former state legislative leader, is battling Shri Thanedar, a businessman with no political experience who is pouring millions into his own campaign, and Abdul El-Sayed, a liberal insurgent"(Martin, Burns). However, I believe the more fundamental issue facing women, the one that has enabled men to dominate politics, is the sentiment that has been expressed towards women as people who can’t handle authority. As is written in the NYT article, “Ms. Giunchigliani argued, “Sometimes a man can just say, ‘I’m a businessman’ whether they are or aren’t. And no one questions that, whereas a woman has to still prove it”(Martin, Burns).

It seems the systematically prohibitive issues facing women are ones that generally come with a patriarchal society that features and enables the subversion of women in general – not just in certain voting blocs and demographics. If there was a woman so vapidly lacking in self-perception that they would oppose a feminist politician or support someone like Susan Collins, then, to say the least, they do not exist in the same voting bloc that would be targeted by a politician running on any platform emphasizing equality - which is why most women aren't running on these issues but rather ones that won't alienate moderates. Speaking on Erin Schrode’s social media inbox messages before the 2016 congressional primary, Maggie Astor writes in NYT, " “All would laugh with glee as they gang raped her and then bashed her bagel eating brains in,” one said. “It’d be amusing to see her take twenty or so for 8 or 10 hours,” another said, again suggesting gang-rape”(Astor). Does this seem like a good time to try to win these people over with ***Logic & Facts*** that apply to everyone? Is there really a common ground? The view that issues facing women today, like unpunished sexual assault, are too moralistically nuanced and partisan, and that a female candidate can’t represent issues of everyone while adhering to intersectional feminist ideology, smells like some All Lives Matter bullshit that wants female candidates to dilute their message by heeling to the same patriarchal political establishments that enforce repression of women in politics in the first place.

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AnonymousOctober 16, 2018 at 9:38 AM
Rick Lessard
It is no secret that women in this country generally face an uphill battle in almost everything they set out to do. Running for political office is no exception either, as the United States seems to be lagging behind other countries in female executives. The 2016 seemed to epitomized the struggle that women face, when a more experienced female candidate lost to a louder, amateur male. In my personal opinion, Clinton could not have gotten as far as she did in the race because of her experience. She probably wouldn’t even made it to the primaries if she had the same type of political experience as Trump. Strangely enough, Clinton’s lost seemed to galvanize women across the country to run for public office in the 2018 election. However, the same challenges await as women have to deal with the male dominated political landscape, the constant sexual harassment, and various other factors.
The term is “the good ole boys club” referencing some rich white straight men helping one another so they can all stay in powerful positions. As Jonathan Martin and Alexander Burns write, “State capitols remain dominated by self-perpetuating male political networks that determine who is groomed and promoted — and the outsiders who do force their way into the nominating process are often rich men wielding fortunes.” (Martin and Alexander 2) Politicians have always been men, more specifically rich men who have connections with other rich men. Women remained at a disadvantage simply because they are going against the establishment. Again, Martin and Burns outline another aspect of adhering to the status quo. They write, Were Ms. Giunchigliani, a veteran officeholder and outspoken liberal, to be nominated, Mr. Reid said, the casino executives who dominate Nevada politics would not only throw their support to Adam Laxalt, the likely Republican candidate for governor — they would also work to wrest control of the state Legislature away from Democrats.” (Martin and Burns 1)
It is not impossible for women candidates to get the money needed to run a campaign but new challenges soon occur like the barrage of sexual harassment. Maggie Astor writes, “But for women, the harassment is ubiquitous and frequently sexualized, and it has come to the fore this election cycle, partly because so many women are running and partly because more of them are discussing their experiences.” Barring one’s overall opinion on the #Metoo movement, one cannot disagree that discussing sexual harassment has become more public. Women candidates have to deal with sexualized comments and nasty internet trolls attacking them simply out of misogyny. It can be said with almost certainty that a male candidate does not have to read emails threatening them with gang rape.
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Cali KeesOctober 16, 2018 at 10:32 AM
Cali Kees
Professor Burns
Blog Post #7
16, October 2018

Many individual and media outlets are calling 2018 the “the year of the woman.” And while it is true that we are seeing this surge and record number of women who are seeking office in this coming midterm election there are some challenges that they will face to get the votes they need to hold office.

According to a Washington Post article by Michelle Ye Hee Lee and Anu Narayanswamy “female congressional candidates overall are lagging behind their male counterparts when it comes to pulling in campaign cash,” (Ye Hee Le and Narayanswamy). By the end of June the same was true for those running for the house with men having raised seventeen percent more than the women running. This post article found that a factor that may be causing this trend of slow fundraising is competition, both with competition between woman and woman and woman and man. This surge has created crowded primary contests.

Many attribute this surge in women seeking office this year to Trumps Presidency. Shortly after Trumps inauguration women and men came out in numbers for the Women’s March and they did so again the following year. Trump during his presidency has said many derogatory things regarding women which has incited rage from females and males. This past year the #metoo movement also occurred, empowering women to stand up and find their truth, to stand up to men despite many social pressures, to expose many of the cruel and unjust acts that have been done to women in recent times. This movement was a huge moment of empowerment for many women. The latest of incidents that showed women that change is necessary was Kavanaugh’s confirmation and with this happening only shortly before midterm elections this will be a point that sticks out in many Americans mind when they get to the polls this November. In the article, "Brett Kavanaugh: How Sex Assault Hearing Could Inspire More Women to Vote and Seek Elected Office,” by Eliza Collins, Collins made the point that, "Several black women’s groups oppose Kavanaugh’s nomination and have vowed to make the push to stop his confirmation a campaign issue in the midterms,” (Collins 1). This article was written before Kavanugh’s confirmation and it is evident that many groups of people are making this confirmation a midterm issue. It is also not only that this has caused people to sway to one side or the other more it is also that it has empowered so many to register to vote.

All of these factors have affected campaign strategies and messaging—some candidates running will advertise they are against Trump or that they would go into their elected position with the mindset of fighting for women’s rights. A lot of the messaging will be, "we need more women in office to end the toleration of sexual assault and sexual harassment,” (Collins 1).

While I do not see the media’s framing of this 2018 is the ‘Year of the Woman,” having that much of an affect on female candidates in this upcoming midterm race I do think that this saying is a little short sighted. It is not that this is the “Year of the Woman,” it is the year that many people—both men and women alike have pointed out some flaws to our system that show that men and women may not completely equal. This year has especially exposed this within the representation of women in government and in instances like Kavanaugh’s trial it became quite evident that men outnumber women in every level of elected office. So while I do think this year is the beginning I do not see this being the end and that there will not be one singular “Year of the Woman,” but many “Years of the Woman,” to come. As is written, in the reading “It’s Time to Retire The “Year of the Woman” by Cynthia Terell, “we can’t call ourselves a representative democracy until our democracy is representative (Terell). And until it becomes representative I think this surge of empowerment amongst women and men seeking change will continue.
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UnknownOctober 16, 2018 at 10:45 AM
Jeffrey Evans
Throughout history women have been fighting for equal rights and an equal chance to accomplish the same political aspirations as men. This year we have seen a huge spike in women running for political positions. However, just how history has always been, these women candidates have many challenges to overcome before they have a chance of winning these elected positions. Geographically women running for positions are within the same districts which means only so many of these women candidates can be elected. Kate Zernike states “And many female candidates are clustered in the same districts, meaning many will be eliminated in this spring and summer’s primaries” (Zernike 2018). This is a huge issue because if women want a chance of winning they need to be more spread out throughout the district, which would allow more of them to be elected. Instead of having 323 women being able to advance to general, it would be reduced by almost half and only leave 171 women to advance (Zernike 2018). This alone makes odds stacked against women because this gives men an advantage based on how much more spread out the male candidates are. Another issue they face is sexism. I believe that women are held at a higher standard than men and are critiqued much harsher than men. With this being said there has been a spike in women speaking up about sexual assaults over the past two years. Even though women should absolutely speak up about these horrible events, it is starting to interfere with politics. People are beginning to believe that women are running strictly based off the recent allegations and the #MeToo movement. However, whenever a woman runs and doesn’t touch upon these movements they will lose out on the big portion of the voters who believe these issues are a big deal and should be in the forefront. In some ways women are in a lose-lose situation because if they do not talk about these topics they lose a big portion of people who follow those movement and also lose a percentage of voters who believe they are only running because of these movements. In contrast many men that run do not run into these same issue which makes it a very uneven playing field. However, Jess King states that “I’m not running because I’m a woman. I’m running because I care about issues” (Woodall 2018). This shows that woman aren’t all about defeating sexism, they actually care about bettering the world and communities by fixing important issues. Lastly, I believe that the “Year of the Woman” is helping women politicians. This turn around may not happen within one year or even two but I believe that this is sparking a light on women. Now that women have realized that changes are needed they will continue to fight for what they believe. This will also show that women aren’t just running because of all the occurring events that happened within the last two years, it will demonstrate that they are here for bettering everything as a whole.
Work Cited
Woodall, Candy. “Midterms: 126 Women Are on Pennsylvania's Ballot and You Might Be Surprised Why They're Running.” Azcentral, York Daily Record, 8 Oct. 2018, www.azcentral.com/story/news/politics/elections/2018/10/08/midterms-126-women-pennsylvania-ballot-pink-wave/1572150002/.

Zernike, Kate, and Denise Lu. “A Surge of Women Candidates, but Crowded Primaries and
Tough Races Await.” The New York Times, The New York Times, 12 May 2018, www.nytimes.com/interactive/2018/05/12/us/politics/women-midterm-elections.html?action=click&module=RelatedCoverage&pgtype=Article®ion=Footer.
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Isaac BauerOctober 16, 2018 at 10:59 AM
In the current state of 2018, I am quite sickened by the rhetoric of our political leaders when it comes to respect for woman and supporting victims of abuse. Donald Trump won office despite his long history of disrespect towards women, and now we are seeing resistance to empowering movements such as #MeToo that only seek to support the victims of abuse that have not yet come out. The challenges facing female candidates are quite substantial when faced with those in power that have no problem discrediting you and making comments on your appearance and heritage. We are seeing a pattern now, where female candidates are being outspent, out donated and out supported by older white males in a very intentional manner. From “Democratic Woman Are Running for Governor. Men and Money Stand in Their Way” by Johnathan Martin and Alexander Burns, there was an excellent quote that can summarize the mood of politics at the moment; “In Maine, supporters of Ms. Mills fear what they view as a repeat of the 2016 election, when a thoroughly well-credentialed woman lost to an aggressive male amateur.” Current races include businessmen with no political experience throwing millions of dollars and running against experienced women in politics, and out spending them. In response, these women are bravely fighting back, and have achieved the most female candidates running this year. Some are calling it a “pink wave” when it comes to describing the surge of female candidates, but I find that to ignore the facts. More women are running because they care about issues, and are incredibly qualified leaders that are running on their own merits alone. It’s not just about being a woman and running for office, it’s about fighting tooth and nail for what you believe in, and taking a stand against injustice happening before your very eyes. From the article, “Midterms: 126 women are on Pennsylvania's ballot and you might be surprised why they're running” by Candy Woodall, candidates for congress such as Democratic Candidate Jess King, as well as Republican Candidate Pearl Kim are both fighting for the issues that they care about, not just because they are woman in a male dominated government. Pearl is the daughter of Korean immigrants, and she seeks to fight for issues regarding campus safety, economy, immigration, and human trafficking. Framing 2018 as “The Year of the Woman” will help female candidates have a strong platform to speak about the woman’s rights issues that seem to come and go in the yearly news cycle without much change. I am putting my hope in the strong women in politics to keep fighting against injustice and the issues within our male dominated government.

Work Cited:

Woodall, Candy. “Midterms: 126 Women Are on Pennsylvania's Ballot and You Might Be Surprised Why They're Running.” Azcentral, York Daily Record, 8 Oct. 2018, www.azcentral.com/story/news/politics/elections/2018/10/08/midterms-126-women-pennsylvania-ballot-pink-wave/1572150002/.

Martin, Jonathan, and Alexander Burns. “Democratic Women Are Running for Governor. Men and Money Stand in Their Way.” The New York Times, The New York Times, 11 June 2018, www.nytimes.com/2018/06/11/us/politics/governor-primary-women-nevada.html?emc=edit_nn_20180612&nl=morning-briefing&nlid=8621852520180612&te=1.

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Beauty UniOctober 16, 2018 at 11:25 AM
PART 1 Charlotte Gardner
There are many challenges for female candidates running for office. The first challenge being the stereotypes that have been attributed to women in power. For example, women are hysterical or unable to make big decisions because they are too emotional. This sexist generalization has been exploited across the political landscape and it’s been discouraging women from trying to earn top-seat positions, regardless of their field. Another challenge is that, predictably, the Republican party usually leans more toward males than females. Democrats have shown that they would be avid voters of female candidates, and although there is an increase in Republican voters who vote female, it is still not as high as Democrat percentage. This could be caused by the next challenge, that what has always been should still be. Female spots in office are still limited and men hold most of these chairs. This makes it likely for people to believe that the open seats should be taken once more by men because that is how it has always been. Historically, men are more apt to vote for men, and women for women. However, there is an increased rate of male participation to run for office this year, “But there has also been a similar surge in the number of men running — meaning that women still make up less than a quarter of all candidates running for the House of Representatives, up just slightly from the last election cycle” (Zernike, Lu). Men also have more of a budget to run as a political candidate as well, which is a problem for current candidate Chris Giunchigliani, “But in several of the biggest states on the map, women have strained to break through or appear at risk of falling behind. Some may win despite being outspent by male opponents, but the financial disparity points to the lingering institutional barriers confronting female candidates who try to crack the glass ceiling of the statehouse dome” (Martin, Burns).
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Emily MickaOctober 16, 2018 at 11:32 AM
Women running for office face a laundry list of challenges throughout their campaign. A surprising number of these challenges are outwardly sexist and involve serious threats and harassment. Take for example Erin Schrode, a 2016 congressional primary candidate from Northern California. She faced not only anti-Semitic harassment, but also harassment simply based on her gender and sometimes both at the same time. Another candidate, Kim Weaver, was harassed to the point where she left the race. Rebecca Thompson of Michigan was followed back to her house after campaign events and stalked which made her feel so unsafe that she ended up sleeping at her parent’s house (Astor, 2018).
It doesn’t stop at just harassment and threats either. Our own president has made several comments about female candidates, and women in politics in general, using their gender as a way to discredit them. For example, he tried to discredit Megyn Kelly saying, “there was blood coming out of her wherever.” He was attacking her, saying she was crazy because she might have been on her period, because she was asking him tough questions and dared to talk back. He mocked Dr. Ford, a victim of sexual assault. In a recent 60 Minutes interview he said his mocking of her doesn’t matter because “we won”. To him and his “gang” of male politicians, victims of sexual assault don’t matter as long as he gets what he wants He called Hilary Clinton a “nasty woman.” The list goes on and on. If a woman in politics isn’t docile, if she doesn’t just follow the status quo, she is shamed and belittled. She can’t speak over her male counterparts, but they can speak over her. She can’t be too feminine, or else some would say you can’t take her seriously, but if she is not feminine enough then she’ll get ridiculed for it. We may think that women are completely equal to men, but a female candidate running for office, or any woman in any area of politics, would beg to differ.
With what’s been happening recently, from Trump’s election, to #MeToo, to Brett Kavanaugh’s nomination, women have been feeling more discouraged, but also more empowered, than they have in a really long time. These issues are driving women to the polls, and motivating them to run for office, because they are seeing now that the old white men in charge do not have their best interest at heart. This surge in political participation from women, especially after Kavanaugh’s nomination, is similar to that of the surge after Anita Hill’s hearing. Senator Patty Murray, a Democrat from Washington, says it was that exact hearing in 1992 that inspired her to run for office (Collins, 2018). The 2018 midterm election is going to be an interesting one and I would not be surprised if we saw a surge of female voters turning out to the polls.

Work Cited
Astor, M. (2018, August 24). For Female Candidates, Harassment and Threats Come Every Day. Retrieved from https://www.nytimes.com/2018/08/24/us/politics/women-harassment-elections.html

Collins, E. (2018, September 27). Brett Kavanaugh: How sex assault hearing could inspire more women to vote and seek elected office. Retrieved from https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2018/09/27/brett-kavanaugh-how-hearing-could-inspire-more-women-seek-office/1437400002/
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SophieOctober 16, 2018 at 11:55 AM
Sophie Rodgers
Dr. Burns
MSS 349-01
16 October, 2018

This year, 256 women won their house and senate primaries for the upcoming midterm elections. This is a historic number of women, and reading these stories makes me feel excited and proud for women in our country. Eventually though, my feelings change from positive to negative. I think it is fantastic that more and more women are succeeding in politics. But it’s 2018. How are these same successes still, in this day and age, considered revolutionary?
We know how, of course: women candidates have always had to deal with obstacles that their male counterparts don’t have to. After all, women (or should I say white women) only won the right to vote in 1920, so men have had a two hundred year head start. One of the root problems is that many people, especially men, have a difficult time viewing women as politicians. You almost can’t blame them: today, women hold only 20% of seats in congress, 23% of seats in the Senate, 19.3% of seats in the House of Representatives, and 12% of governor positions (CAWP). In fact, “80% of elected officials- at every level of government- are men.” (Terrell, Moses). The representation for women simply isn’t there, which hurts not only voters’ perceptions of female candidates, but prospective female candidates’ perceptions of themselves. If no one who looks like you is in office, it’s much more difficult to convince yourself that you can do it.
Once women decide to run, the obstacles continue. We know from history that women make successful, competent politicians. In general, “women are more likely than men to back legislation that helps American families; they are also more likely to collaborate and seek compromise, forging personal and professional relationships that cross party lines.” (Terrell, Moses). In 2013, a group of five female senators from both parties “pulled America out of a government shutdown” by creating “a framework that ultimately served as the core of the deal to reopen the government” (Terrell, Moses). Why, then, do so many people have a hard time respecting female candidates? Harassment is frequent during female political campaigns, whether online or in person. Death and rape threats are common, especially when the candidate is part of a racial or ethnic minority group. For women, “harassment is ubiquitous and frequently sexualied, and it has come to the fore this election cycle”, so much so that some female candidates have started attending personal safety and self-defense sessions (Astor). Some incidents are not as obvious. Many candidates, including Lauren Baer, a Democratic congress nominee from Southern Florida, have had to deal with questions from “donors and supporters about who is caring for her young child” (Ye Hee Lee, Narayanswamy). People often struggle with seeing women as multifaceted, instead putting them into such boxes as a mother or a politician, not both.
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Brent CostantinoOctober 16, 2018 at 12:01 PM
Blog #7
2018 marks a record year in women’s history with regards to social movements such as #MeToo, and women running for positions in political office. These trends do not mean that female candidates have it easy. As a matter of fact, they are being looked down upon in light of the recent Brett Kavanaugh hearings.
Many Republicans including President Trump himself have openly ridiculed Dr. Christine Ford for her testimony regarding sexual assault allegations against the soon-to-be supreme court judge. Trump and other Republicans alike have accused her of lying about the allegations in order to somehow dismantle the president’s agenda. Leaving a scary outlook and future pattern for women who feel brave enough to speak publically about serious issues.
Current political issues such as sexual assault will be the main talking points for women running for office in 2018. It would be wise for female candidates to target female voters to show support. With regards to sexual assault issues, female candidates should target mothers who want protection for their daughters in the future. Old white women put Trump at an advantage during the 2016 election, but if women candidates can secure these voters it would be exponentially easier for them to win upcoming elections.
Media’s framing of the “women of 2018” in politics will help these candidates garner votes because the more exposure they receive the more people will hear their message. The media is indicating a massive change in politics, and the more people to know about it the better. The new wave of women candidates this year can potentially inspire new voters to go out and vote at the polls.
The article titled ‘126 Women are on Pennsylvania’s Ballot and You Might Be Surprised Why They’re Running’ by Candy Woodall of the York Daily Record states, “Pennsylvania is one of 11 states with no women serving in Congress. The 18 people elected to represent Pennsylvania in the U.S. House are all men, as are both of the state’s U.S. senators.” If key swing states such as Pennsylvania are fully controlled by men, it will make it a lot harder for a woman to break in and nab a seat amongst them. Considering presidential elections are usually decided by a select few swing states such as Pennsylvania, it is no surprise that a woman has not yet secured the presidency.
Furthermore, the article entitled ‘Democratic Women Are Running for Governor. Men and Money Stand in Their Way’ by Jonathan Martin and Alexander Burns of the New York Times states, “Ms. Raimondo said she was hopeful that 2018 would see breakthroughs for women in governorships, but that the country’s political culture had been slow to embrace female executives.” 2018 is a crucial year with regards to seeing how the current political landscape shapes out. Political culture is rapidly changing, and people need to start accepting women in executive positions.

Works Cited
Martin, Jonathan, and Alexander Burns. “Democratic Women Are Running for Governor. Men and Money Stand in Their Way.” The New York Times, The New York Times, 11 June 2018, www.nytimes.com/2018/06/11/us/politics/governor-primary-women-nevada.html.

Woodall, Candy. “126 Women Are on the Ballot in Pa., and You Might Be Surprised Why They're Running.” The York Daily Record, York Daily Record, 9 Oct. 2018, www.ydr.com/story/news/2018/10/08/pa-election-2018-126-women-ballot-and-making-history/1556703002/.

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UnknownOctober 16, 2018 at 12:11 PM
Some of the challenges facing women running for political office include, but are certainly not limited to, assumption that women are too emotional to hold a position of power, the fact that women have historically not been in positions of great power (in America, at least), and the fact that many conservatives continually feed this negative narrative about women in the news. Conservatives tend to be opposed to women’s issues as it is, particularly in regard to reproductive health. For example, the exploitation of Hillary Clinton’s womanhood in the name of political gain on behalf of the Republican party, namely Donald Trump, was a huge blow to women who choose to campaign in the future.
Unfortunately, many womens’ campaigns are being clouded by the #MeToo movement, and by the pressure to be proactive against sexual assault in the wake of Kavanaugh’s appointment to the Supreme Court. As a female, I am so grateful for the high visibility of the Me Too movement, and I can only hope that this energy carries over for years and years to come. I want to live in a country where women are protected, taken seriously, and able to see their abusers behind bars. The fact that the Me Too movement has taken such a political turn gives it that same visibility, both for good and bad reasons. Trump is belittling women who come forward, especially Dr. Ford against Judge Kavanaugh, which is despicable yet not surprising in our tumultuous political climate.
At the same time, I think #MeToo has motivated more women to run for office than ever before in America. In Pennsylvania alone, there are 126 women on the ballot (Woodull), both because Donald Trump won and because Hillary Clinton lost. Both are key motivators for women wanting to be heard; women candidates want to drown out Trump’s negative rhetoric while pushing him out of office. Additionally, women candidates want to do what Hillary tried to on the 2016 Presidential Campaign trail: make it commonplace for women to be go-getters in politics, and to snatch positions of power away from misogynistic, selfish, money-hungry old men who defund Planned Parenthood, seek to take away the choice to abort, and then fail to hold rapists accountable, all at the expense of women. For this reason, some candidates are choosing to not use their womanhood in their platforms; they want the focus to be on the issues themselves, and not on who is advocating for the change. According to this AZ Central article, “Jess King, a Democrat and nonprofit executive running to unseat Republican Lloyd Smucker in the newly redrawn 11th congressional district, doesn’t even mention being a woman when she explains why she’s running.” (Woodull). To dwell on one’s own womanhood invites the opposition to do the same, which is more hurtful than helpful in America.
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UnknownOctober 16, 2018 at 12:12 PM
Despite rally cries by women and allies across the country, women still lag behind men in campaign funds and traction. According to The Washington Post, “Men running for the House had collected almost 17 percent more on average than their female counterparts by the end of June, The Post found in its examination of candidates who showed viability by raising at least $50,000.” (Yee Hee Lee). So, to call this the year of the woman in America, especially in regard to political success, would be premature and indicative of a society that pats men on the back for verbally supporting women while not actually following through with action or contribution. This gap in funding is unfounded and illogical to me, because “Overall, female candidates in general did better in fundraising in the 63 competitive House races tracked by the Cook Political Report but still trailed male candidates by an average of $63,516, The Post found.” (Yee Hee Lee). How then, are women so strong, so motivated, and so qualified, on top of being proactive in seeking support, yet still trail behind? Welcome to America.

Works Cited
Woodull, Candy. "126 Women Are on Pennsylvania's Ballot and You Might Be Surprised Why They're
Running." York Daily Record, 8 Oct. 2018.
Ye Hee Lee, Michelle and Anu Narayanswamy. "Despite Year-of-the-Woman Buzz, Female Candidates
Lag Behind Men in Drawing in Campaign Cash." Washington Post, 16 Aug. 2018.

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