What I Learned From Hillary Clinton

Guest post by The CandyMan

כִּי-בָרָא יְהוָה חֲדָשָׁה בָּאָרֶץ, נְקֵבָה תְּסוֹבֵב גָּבֶר
For god has created something new in the world, the woman turns the man. (Jer. 31:21)

My female friends are feeling a little blue these days, and I think it has something to do with Hillary Clinton. These women, highly educated, highly effective, were excited about the possibility of a woman President. Now they're left with just one more disappointment, one more reminder of the glass ceiling.

Now, don't get me wrong -- I think Hillary's runner-up has less to do with gender and more to do with bad luck. Hillary lost some muscle in MI and FL, the primaries were not winner-take-all, and she had to compete against the Obama juggernaut. She also made a few mistakes. Despite all these obstacles, she could easily have been the nominee, had the wind blown just slightly the other way.

I suspect, however, that my female friends are unlikely to share this view. In my experience, women in general have lower self-esteem than men and are more likely to blame themselves for a disappointing outcome. My female friends will identify with Hillary, and they will feel her pain, but they will not blame luck or even sexism. Instead, they will wonder where they went wrong. When Hillary is forced out, they will pocket the insult, and mourn it in their own way.

I always thought I was a feminist, but the Clinton candidacy (and the talk of sexism that it has sparked) has helped open my eyes to the plight of women in the professional world. I also recently read a wonderful short story about this, entitled Horseman. The story is about a young female academic. Early in her career, a male role model criticizes her writing, saying it was technically immaculate but lacked spunk. "You'll succeed just fine," he tells her, "you'll just never be any good." The comment undermines her confidence and haunts her for the next ten years. Reading this story, I thought of my female colleagues, and wondered whether I treat them as equals or as something else.

The story, together with Hillary's campaign, has forced me to look at the world through a working woman's eyes. And as they say in the Talmud, it's an upside-down world. I believe women in our society are still highly sexualized, much more so than men. My workplace is mostly male, and although we are all nice, modern guys, we often talk about women and bandy about terms like "chick" without thinking how the women in the lab might feel. I work in one of the most liberal universities in the world, but the higher-ups in my department are all fifty-something white men. The other day, I saw them standing around outside the building, in a huddle, joking around, discussing something important (probably who should be the next department chair). There were no women present -- it was the good old boys club!

Things are changing, of course. And it's only a matter of time until we have a woman President. If she's anything like Laura Roslin, she'll bring to the table some elements that are lacking in our politics: grace, pragmatism, a willingness to compromise, and empathy, all layered over an inner core of steel. But for now, women all over the country have been dealt a defeat, and the ladies in your life may be feeling a little down. Try to cheer them up if you can, and definitely tread lightly at the workplace.