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Hillary Clinton: Focus on how people look is barrier to electing woman president
The Standard (UK) ^ | 11/15/2024 | Rebecca Black

Posted on 11/15/2024 10:54:57 AM PST by simpson96

Hillary Clinton has described people’s judgment on how they think the US president should look as a barrier to seeing the first female in the role.

Speaking at a women in leadership event at Queen’s University Belfast a week after President-elect Donald Trump triumphed over Democratic candidate and Vice President Kamala Harris in the US election, Mrs Clinton spoke about why there have been more female prime ministers in parliamentary systems than presidents.

Mrs Clinton, who ran unsuccessfully to be president in 2016, said that in a parliamentary system a woman can prove her worth to colleagues and are more likely to rise to the top.

“Whether it’s Margaret Thatcher, Indira Gandhi or Angela Merkel, you see the women who are known as women leaders who came to power in the last 50 years or so, as heading a party within a parliament,” she said.

“A presidential system is very different. You usually go through a primary to determine who the party picks to be the candidate, you have to run to the whole country, you have to raise all the money and you really are out there on your own, and it’s a very different kind of contest than rising through the parliamentary ranks,” she said.

“That is still competitive obviously but it requires somewhat different preparation and skills.

“So it was always interesting to see how women as the head of government got to that position. Because they were the head of government, but not the head of state, there was somebody else to fill all the ceremonial roles, but when you run for president, you’re head of both. So people are judging you, not just ‘can she do the job, does she look like the head of state?’.

“That’s one of the reasons we’ve had trouble now twice breaking through to elect a woman president because there is still a mindset in our country certainly about what a president looks like and how a president acts so therefore who should be a president.”

Mrs Clinton, who is Chancellor of Queen’s, said she was very happy to be back in Belfast, quipping: “I’m thinking about applying for an asylum.”

A host of women, including Northern Ireland minister Fleur Anderson, spoke about the challenges of women moving into leadership positions and thanked Mrs Clinton for the interest she continues to take in Northern Ireland decades after she visited with her husband, then US president Bill Clinton, to encourage political leaders moving towards the Belfast/Good Friday Agreement.

Mrs Clinton said she sees an enormous amount of potential in the expansion of female leadership and warned against the “perfection gene”, instead urging the importance of getting involved and learning from mistakes.

She said it was a journey for women to step up for leadership, and expressed concern about leaders increasingly becoming “performers”, and said women need to learn how to respond to this.

“Young women, and not so young women, are afflicted by what I call the perfection gene – if I’m not perfect, I’m not even going to try it, and I’m certainly not going to try it in public.

“I have to be perfect before I stand up and give my first speech. I have to be perfect before I make any kind of, you know, public claim, whether it’s for a position in student government or running for office and I think this is largely a female-linked trait, and it’s impossible to overcome unless you’re aware of it and you recognise it for what it is, which is a barrier holding you back,” she said.

“You will never be perfect, no matter how hard you try. You can, however, be good enough, and you can get better, and you can keep improving.

“In today’s world, especially given social media, there seems to be a premium on leaders who are performers and you’ve always had to be a certain kind of performer… we’re seeing a different kind of leadership now where it’s a leadership that is aimed at performance, that is the purpose, and anything else is kind of a secondary asset that you are performing, and maybe you’ll get something done, but the most important thing is the performance.

“I think there’s going to have to be some real thought given as to how women stay true to ourselves and able to communicate effectively in the information eco-system in which we are living.

“It worries me a lot, since we now live so much of our lives online, we are seeing all kinds of impacts on people’s personal lives – there’s a very clear correlation between increases in anxiety, loneliness, depression, body image issues, suicide ideation and the addiction to social media.

“Remember, the algorithms are designed to keep your attention and sadly negative information keeps your attention much more than positive information.

“So if you’re fed a steady diet that questions who you are, or presents people as influencers or role models who are peddling negativity, that affects not just your personhood, it affects your community, it affects your politics so I do worry, because I think the technology has outpaced our understanding of it, the impact it is having and how we best harness it.

“And now we’re on the brink of artificial intelligence, which has many potential advantages, particularly in areas like health, but many, many dangers.

“We are in an uncharted world and if you’re a leader today, you have to understand the world in which you’re operating and the people you are communicating with are operating.”

During her address, Ms Anderson praised all-women shortlists as giving her the confidence to put herself forward to run for Parliament and increasing the number of female MPs from less than 10% in the 1990s to 40% at the last election earlier this year.

She told those gathered she worked in international development, and first became involved in politics when her local council proposed closing a child’s centre before going on to become a councillor.

But she said many women do not tend to put themselves forward.

She said she was on an all-women short list when she first ran to become an MP for Putney in 2019.

“Without that, I’m not sure if I’d have had the courage to run,” she said.

Professor Karen McCloskey, who heads up the Queen’s Gender Initiative (QGI), said no women were able to attend the university when it first opened in 1845 and that 24 years ago, when QGI started, less than 11% of professors were women and that “something had to be done”.

“Today we have near parity for many of our professional service grades and our lecturers, and 11% professors has become 33%,” she said.

“It didn’t happen by chance, it took commitment on those hard yards. The journey was led by women, often to the detriment of their academic and their research portfolios, and yes, there are wonderful male allies and supportive leaders, but we owe enormous debt to those pioneering women and everything that they’ve done.”


TOPICS: Chit/Chat
KEYWORDS: clinton; hillary
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To: Leaning Right

Webb Hubble liked it at least once.


41 posted on 11/15/2024 11:45:18 AM PST by Resolute Conservative
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To: simpson96

Yes, and focusing on intelligence is a barrier to electing stupid people.

Luckily for us, Hil, it worked in your and Kammy’s cases.


42 posted on 11/15/2024 11:49:03 AM PST by Attention Surplus Disorder (The Democrat breadlines will be gluten-free. )
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To: Ciaphas Cain
I'm not averse to a woman being president. I am however greatly opposed to socialist women being president.
<>P> Agreed. And I'm adverse to being told we must elect a woman president just because she's a woman.
43 posted on 11/15/2024 11:49:40 AM PST by Tell It Right (1 Thessalonians 5:21 -- Put everything to the test, hold fast to that which is true.)
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To: simpson96

LOL Rush was right about so many things.


44 posted on 11/15/2024 11:54:50 AM PST by Vaduz
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To: E. Pluribus Unum

That clip never gets old (or less amusing!).


45 posted on 11/15/2024 12:00:39 PM PST by Sicon ("All animals are equal, but some animals are more equal than others." - G. Orwell)
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To: AlaskaErik

Many Hillary supporters said that Obama used sketchy tactics, especially in caucuses (cauci?).


46 posted on 11/15/2024 12:00:57 PM PST by PghBaldy (12/14/12 - 930am -rampage begins... 12/15/12 - 1030am - Obama team scouts photo-op locations.)
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To: ponygirl

She wasn’t handcuffed. You can see the guy pull her right arm from behind her back to her side/front, just before they toss her sorry ass into the van like the sack of fertilizer that she is.


47 posted on 11/15/2024 12:03:02 PM PST by Sicon ("All animals are equal, but some animals are more equal than others." - G. Orwell)
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To: simpson96

Shouldn’t we put the country ahead of some woman wanting to be “the first woman to be a credit to her sex by being the first credit to her sex president?”


48 posted on 11/15/2024 12:06:48 PM PST by FlingWingFlyer (Jamaicans Haitians and Indians used to run motels and 7-11s. Now,they run Congress and the judiciary)
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To: simpson96

I would suggest that any female wanting to run for president in the future make sure to NOT have a hideous horrendous cackle that makes people’s ears hemorrhage.


49 posted on 11/15/2024 12:14:57 PM PST by Newtoidaho (All I ask of living is to have no chains on me.)
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To: simpson96
Mrs Clinton, who is Chancellor of Queen’s, said she was very happy to be back in Belfast, quipping: “I’m thinking about applying for an asylum.”

Do It ! Do It ! I will write you a check right now...
50 posted on 11/15/2024 12:15:21 PM PST by stylin19a ("If You Can Read This, Thank a Teacher. If You Can Read It In English, Thank a Veteran" )
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To: vaskypilot

Agree 100%. But any woman in her right mind avoids the political “Mean Girls “ scene.


51 posted on 11/15/2024 12:19:29 PM PST by griswold3 (Truth Beauty and Goodness)
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To: ClearCase_guy

Well, he likely smells batter.

“Boiled cabbage, urine, and farts” according to podesta


52 posted on 11/15/2024 12:31:27 PM PST by doorgunner69 (Your oath of enlistment has no expiration date)
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To: poinq

Yeah, I’m telling you. She’s like a hemorroid that just won’t go away. Nauseating, ugly, old, arrogant and just gassy. Gas just coming out of her mouth.


53 posted on 11/15/2024 12:33:01 PM PST by vespa300
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To: simpson96

54 posted on 11/15/2024 12:50:53 PM PST by Vendome (I've Gotta Be Me https://youtu.be/wH-pk2vZG2M)
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To: ClearCase_guy

Trump definitely has better hair...


55 posted on 11/15/2024 1:14:20 PM PST by Organic Panic (Democrats. Memories as short as Joe Biden's eyes)
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To: vespa300

Hillary’s ugly inside and out.


56 posted on 11/15/2024 1:51:20 PM PST by popdonnelly (All the enormous crimes in history have been committed by governments.)
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To: simpson96

It also helps if you are not Satan’s Daughter.


57 posted on 11/15/2024 2:24:10 PM PST by doug from upland (LET'S GO BRANDON)
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To: simpson96

Wierd

Wise Latina
Black female justice

Black vp
Black female pres

Blah
Blah


58 posted on 11/15/2024 2:57:21 PM PST by If You Want It Fixed - Fix It
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To: poinq

Tremor.


59 posted on 11/15/2024 3:43:24 PM PST by arthurus (covfefe gu)
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To: Leaning Right

60 posted on 11/15/2024 5:38:11 PM PST by ViLaLuz (2 Chronicles 7:14)
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