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You have to earn women's votes, you don't just get them because you're a woman too.

 

Telling women to vote for other women, just because they are women, is patronising in the extreme.

How we choose to engage with politics, and who we choose to vote for is about so much more than just gender.

It’s about policy and politics and passion, and trying to decide who is the best advocate for women’s rights.

Sometimes, that person is a woman, and sometimes they are not.

There are plenty of women in politics who I don’t agree with. Who support ideas and policies that I would never support, who put forward positions that I believe harm women more than they help them.

A vote for those women is not a vote I would ever cast.

So I was pretty frustrated when I saw that Madeleine Albright had used her own old line, “There’s a special place in hell for women who don’t help each other,” stumping for Hillary Clinton in New Hampshire on the weekend.

Not because I don’t support Clinton’s bid for the presidency, but because voting for a woman is not the only way that women can support each other.

Albright was talking about young women, who the polling says are breaking for Bernie Sanders in the Democratic primaries.

They are smart enough to know that picking a candidate for high office is about so much more than just gender.

And that’s why they don’t all support Clinton.

They’ve made a choice that reflects their values, they’ve picked the candidate they believe best represents them.

I am not going to tell any woman how she should be voting based on the gender of candidates.

A feminist female president of the United States? Amazing. I would like to see that, and I would like to see that soon. But you’ll not find me arguing that any woman would be better than any man. And I’m not going to buy into discussions that end up pitting women against each other in an attempt at feminist-cred-one-upmanship.

Let women decide for themselves who to vote for, and trust that they are smart enough to make a decision that reflects their values and beliefs.

Because anything else is selling women (and Hillary Clinton) short.

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Top Comments

Guess 9 years ago

Men should help men ahead of women to get elected. There's a special place in hell for guys who don't.

Fair enough?


gest 9 years ago

Obama would be pretty happy at this stage - it was the Hillary camp who started the whole 'birther' idea that he was really born in Africa - and he doesn't forgive. I suspect when she inevitably crashes and burns Biden will step in at the last minute. Hillary has all the baggage that Bill had but without any of her husband's legendary personal charm and ability to connect with people - a really awful candidate whose only claim seems to be a) it's 'my turn' and b) she's a woman.

Louisa Squires 9 years ago

I'm with you Guest. A female president of the USA would be wonderful but Hilary (in my opinion) is not the best choice. Her campaign seems to be all about gender and nothing about having the best policies or capacity to perform. Her legacy as Secretary of State is not one she should be proud of.