Its hard to talk about politics nowadays without bringing up the issues of race and gender. With the tight race between Hilary and Obama heating up, it seems that many people care less about the issues and more about the candidate as a person. While I do think that it is important to look at the personality of the candidate him or herself, its difficult not to wonder to what extent gender roles affect the popularity of each candidate, and whether or not this is a legitimate way to judge someone's potential competence in office.
As a former first lady, some people may think that Hilary Clinton has an advantage over Obama in the race for the democratic candidacy. And because the Democratic Party considers itself to be the party of equality and change, it is no surprise that the first female presidential contender may end up representing this party. Still, statistics have shown that men of all races tend to support Obama over Clinton. In Wisconsin, for example, Obama won blue-collar male support, while Clinton still won the support of women and other groups (http://www.slate.com/id/2184689/).
To what extent do you think existing ideas about Gender roles play a role in statistics such as these? is it possible that men like those in Wisconsin genuinely relate more to Obama, or must this disparity between voters of similar economic backgrounds be necessarily attributed to gender ideals in the US?
2 comments:
I think that allot of people have prejudices about anyone that is from a different race, gender, religious background or in some case a different ethnic background. I wish is wasn't that way, I'm happy to say that I am not but our society seems to have that defect woven into our fabric. Since it is learned I hope that someday we as a people overcome this and learn to admire differences and look forward to learning from those who are different as we may be different from them.
What do you think? Do you think gender is an important deciding factor in the qualification of the next president? Do we associate the qualities of what it means to be a "good president" with masculine qualities? I like that you brought up the discussion and I would have liked to hear your thoughts/opinions on it too.
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