When Hillary first declared her Presidential candidacy I said that I wanted to vote for policies, not gender, and if Hillary was going to run on the platform of the “first woman President” then she would not succeed. Actually, she didn’t run on this platform, but others sent out that message all the same.
In the event 53% of white women voted for Trump. As Susan Chira of the New York Times (November 13, 2016) points out, what is more important to women than gender is party, class and racial identity, party identity being the principal predictor of how women (and men) vote. It turns out that Democtrats never win the majority of votes from white women. “All the talk about angry white men glosses over the fact that they are married to angry white women”. Education is a big factor. Trump won 62% of women without college educations, Hillary only 34%. Many women were/are worried about immigration, terrorism, the effects of trade on jobs, intrusive and over- large government. Others, college educated, minorities and young, unmarried women were the ones who did vote for Hillary, including a significant number of educated former Republicans.
I think Epicurus, were he with us today, would say that women should in every respect be treated as equals to men, be paid equally for equal work, and that nothing should stand in the way of women reaching the top of any profession they choose (without being bullied and groped!), including the Presidency. Some woman, during the election commented that it was inappropriate for a woman to be Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces. Nonsense! We need intelligent and thoughtful strategic thinkers – their gender is irrelevant.
I think it would be nice to have a woman president. One of the problems Hillary faced was that because presidents have always been male, people judge presidential candidates by their ability to exhibit stereotypically masculine traits: being authoritative, talking loudly, speaking in front of large crowds, being tough. What many of Hillary’s closest allies say is that although partly because of her gender, she isn’t what many Americans imagine the president to be, she is a very good listener. Generally I would say that women are better listeners than men, Hillary genuinely listens to people and takes their views into consideration. This isn’t always a good thing: Hillarycare was a messy compromise because too many views were factored, contributing to its ultimate defeat. But its miles better than Trump, a guy who never listens to anyone and only cares about himself.
Speaking of women, in 2020, I think Elizabeth Warren should make a run. She’s smart, eloquent, she would get both the feminist and the socialist vote. Her only weakness is that perhaps she has less of a wide appeal than Bernie Sanders, who would’ve beaten Trump handily had he been the nominee (according to opinion polls.) Warren has engaged in a lot of the social liberalism that drove working class whites towards Trump, such as talking about her Native American heritage to make a political point, or being a very staunch supporter of gun control. She’s also probably a bit too pro immigration for those voters- Bernie was pressured into moving to the Left in a debate moderated by Univision’s Jorge Ramos, but for most of his career he’s been a centrist on the issue. But I could be wrong, Warren may be able to win as a straightforward and consistent progressive the way Obama was able to do. Regardless, she’s one of the view eloquent voices the Democrats have left.