professional career just prior to the time of her husband’s
inauguration. She’s also the first former first lady to run for
elected office and to serve in the U.S. Cabinet.
If her campaign ends in success, Clinton will add
another first to that list: first woman president of the U.S.
As a presidential candidate, Clinton’s gender has
undeniably played a role in her campaign — from overt
sexism in reaction to her campaign to the prospect of
finally seeing a female commander in chief.
Even the use of her first name has prompted discussion.
Is it sexist to call her “Hillary” when Donald Trump goes
by “Trump” and no one calls Ted Cruz “Ted”? Yet, Bernie
Sanders goes by “Bernie.” Perhaps bringing gender into
politics inevitably opens new lines of thought.
Lane County supporters say Clinton’s gender is only
one of many factors that make her an ideal candidate.
“I’m not supporting her because she is a woman,” Cox
says. “But I’m eager to have a qualified, competent woman
in the White House. That is undeniably part of her appeal. It’s
not just any woman, but this woman, and at the right time.”
Phoebe Bellisario, a sophomore in political science at
the University of Oregon, says that she has experienced
stereotyping: “I hear people say, ‘Oh, you’re a woman so
you have to vote for Hillary,’ but I don’t think that’s the
case,” she explains. “I like Hillary, and I’m not voting for her
because she’s a woman. She just happens to be a woman.”
Still, Clinton fans acknowledge the significance of
potentially seeing the first woman president take office.
“It would be a huge milestone for women’s rights,”
Bellisario says.
Cox points out that countries around the world have had
women leaders, including her birth country — South Korea
currently has a female president, Park Geun-hye.
“I think about my granddaughter and daughter,” Cox
says. “For that generation, when you look at pay equity
and so many different issues, the glass ceiling has not been
fully broken through, and having a woman in the White
House is taking that next step.”
Evangelina Sundgrenz, creator of the “Lane County
Democrats for Hillary” Facebook page, says that “it
would be incredibly important, not just because I believe
women have not been given their fair share of leadership
opportunities in this country, but because of what it would
mean for half our society. Our girls would see that they,
too, can become president.”
WAIT YOUR TURN
In 2016, women running for president still face an
onslaught of sexism, and Hillary Clinton has long been a
favorite target. Her political career shows she’s no stranger
to this treatment: In 1992, when Bill Clinton was running
for president, a frustrated Hillary Clinton, who was working
as an attorney at the time, said to reporters, “I suppose I
could have stayed home and baked cookies and had teas,
but what I decided to do was to fulfill my profession, which
I entered before my husband was in public life.”
The comment sparked outrage from stay-at-home moms.
During this election cycle, we’ve seen Donald Trump
bash Fox News reporter Megyn Kelly for having blood
“coming out of her whatever”; after giving an opening
statement in which she mentioned her struggle with breast
cancer, former Republican presidential candidate Carly
Fiorina fielded a tweet from radio show host Steve Deance,
who said, “Wow … Fiorina goes full vagina right away”;
and more recently, MSNBC host Joe Scarborough tweeted,
“Smile. You just had a big night,” regarding Clinton’s
March 15 victory speech after she won several primaries.
Can we please stop telling women to smile?
The sexism inherent in these comments shows the
entrenched opposition that women face. To Clinton’s Lane
County supporters, it’s a source of frustration.
Sundgrenz says women in leadership positions are at a
disadvantage, because society views outspoken women as
aggressive or bossy. “In the same way, we see her treatment
in the campaign,” she says.
Bellisario says she’s noticed an inordinate focus on
Clinton’s appearance. “ I feel like the media critiques her
image, the way she dresses, the way she does her hair,”
she says.
Cox says she’s tired of hearing Clinton referred to
as “shrill.” Clinton talks loudly, she says, but “she’s not
speaking in any different volume than Bernie Sanders or
any of the men who run for president.”
Clinton herself has alluded to this: “Sometimes when a
woman speaks out, some people think it’s shouting,” she
said last October.
“We can see how Bernie Sanders wags his finger at her
and says ‘Wait your turn’ when she’s in a debate with him,”
Sundgrenz says. “It’s very patriarchal.”
CLINTONITES AND BERNERS
Bernie Sanders, Clinton’s opponent for the Democratic
nomination, has seen his campaign take off since
announcing his candidacy last May.
Earlier this year, EW covered the fervor of local Berners
(“Feel the Bern,” Feb. 18), who meet weekly and back
their candidate with passionate flair.
Clinton has a solid following in Lane County, her
supporters say, but the volume of enthusiasm isn’t blasted
as loudly.
“It’s a quieter constituency, as inevitably it is when you
have somebody who’s been around and has a reputation
as a compromiser and a moderate leader as opposed to an
idealist,” Wilde says. “I worry that the electorate always
seems to get led down the garden path by big talkers.”
For the most part, backers of Clinton like Sanders and
his ideas, but they think his ambition lies outside the realm
of reality.
“There are things I might agree with in principle that are
politically impossible,” Wilde explains. “Lots of politicians
like to bluster and say they’re going to break up the banks
and things like that, but it’s not really that simple.”
Sundgrenz says she also agrees with much of the
Sanders campaign and what it stands for, but she questions
his ability to work with Congress to pass bills. She points
to previous debates, where she says Sanders has shown his
lack of knowledge on foreign policy.
“I feel that the Bernie campaign is instrumental
in bringing people out to vote and care about issues,”
Sundgrenz says, “but Hillary Clinton has the leadership,
and she knows how things work.”
Cox says that Sanders’ presence in the race has
strengthened Clinton as a candidate, although in her
view, his history as a socialist doesn’t match up with the
perspective of the Democratic Party.
She recalls a debate between Hillary Clinton and Barack
Obama during the 2008 election cycle. Obama talked about
his plans to close Guantanamo immediately, Cox says, and
Clinton answered with a more measured response.
“She knew that you couldn’t just say all those things to get
in,” Cox says. “She’s only promising what she believes she
can actually produce. I don’t see that from Bernie Sanders.”
HILLARY FOR LANE COUNTY
Locally, Democrats for Clinton continue to rally the
troops to help her win the nomination.
Sundgrenz says local Clinton supporters hosted a
number of house parties last year to kick off the campaign
and get to know each other. They stay in touch through
Facebook, she says, where they also coordinate virtual
campaign phone banking. With Oregon’s primary still far
away, Sundgrenz says one way that locals can help out
the Clinton campaign is to chat with voters in states with
upcoming primaries.
Bellisario, a member of the group UO for Hillary, says
that a coalition of around 70 UO students have assembled
online, and they plan to start meeting regularly when
spring term starts.
They’re gearing up efforts to hand out literature and
interact with voters on campus, Bellisario says.
There’s no official word of Hillary Clinton making a
campaign visit to Oregon yet, but she spent March 22 in
Seattle, and Bill Clinton stopped by Vancouver on March
21 to campaign for his wife — in a surprise move, he
swung by Powell's Books in Portland, where Gov. Kate
Brown gave him a tour and endorsed Hillary Clinton for
president.
Washington’s Democratic caucus takes place on March 26.
“We’re at the genesis of it all,” Cox says. “Since
Oregon’s primary is so late, there’s often the notion that it
doesn’t matter, but I think that we’re organizing now to say
it does matter.” ■
MARSHALL WILDE,
MEMBER OF
DEMOCRATIC
PARTY OF LANE
COUNTY
LOCAL HILLARY CLINTON SUPPORTERS,
WITH SUSAN COX UPPER LEFT, JARROD
MOWATT THIRD FROM THE RIGHT IN
THE UPPER ROW, AND EVANGELINA
SUNDGRENZ LOWER RIGHT
eugeneweekly.com • March 24, 2016
13