Bias in Questions of Clinton's "Likeability"
Philadelphia Inquirer - 01.11.08

NEW YORK - When Hillary Rodham Clinton was asked during the New Hampshire debate what she would tell voters who were "hesitating on the likability issue," it sounded like a high school girl being asked what she would tell potential suitors who were "hesitating on the dating issue."

As Clinton campaigns across the nation, some women are asking: Would a male candidate be asked to defend his likability? What does likability signify in a candidate, anyway? Can a female candidate even afford to be likable, without compromising the need to appear tough?

Clinton tried to blunt the question with a little rueful humor before launching into her own defense. "Well, that hurts my feelings," she said. "But I'll try to go on."

It was an approach that impressed Daniela Ioan, a mother of two, who watched the debate on replay the next night at her home in Hamden, Conn. It was the debate, during which she felt Barack Obama and John Edwards were teaming up harshly on Clinton, that made Ioan decide to support her.

"She's not measured by the same yardstick," Ioan said. "Even if you don't like her, she shouldn't be scrutinized the way she is. I felt like I had to do something to help her."

The likability question also rankles Kate White, editor in chief of Cosmopolitan magazine, who called it "totally unfair." White added: "She's brilliant, hardworking, energetic, clearly a great mother because she raised a dazzling daughter, and by the accounts of many people who know her, funny and warm. I don't see what's not to like."

Feminist icon Gloria Steinem feels the issue smacks of "a double, maybe triple, standard."

"There is still no 'right' way to be a powerful woman - and almost no wrong way to be a powerful man - so the standard for likability in powerful men is incredibly low, and the one for women is incredibly high," Steinem wrote via e-mail to the Associated Press.

Of course, male candidates are expected to be likable, too. Bill Clinton was masterly at it, and President Bush - as Sen. Clinton herself has pointed out - was known as the candidate people wanted to have a beer with. (Al Gore, on the other hand, was seen as stiff and not so likable.)

But the difference is these men could appear likable without doing damage to their image of toughness. In other words, they could laugh, be empathetic, hug, kiss, and, yes, even cry, without seeming less capable of having their finger on the nuclear button.

By contrast, when Clinton's eyes moistened in her famous "moment" with a New Hampshire voter - a moment many feel helped lead to her surprise victory there - Edwards had this response: "I think what we need in a commander in chief is strength and resolve."

"It's gender bias, plain and simple," said Kathleen Hall Jamieson, director of the Annenberg Public Policy Center at the University of Pennsylvania. "They're supposed to be warm and accessible, because that's what's perceived to be gender-appropriate. But they also need to be tough and competent. The minute they appear that way, their warmth and accessibility are called into question."

She noted that Geraldine Ferraro, the 1984 Democratic vice presidential nominee, was asked if she was tough enough to press the nuclear button. That was almost a quarter-century ago.

There are, of course, parallels in the corporate world.

It's no accident, said Mary Trigg of the Institute of Women's Leadership at Rutgers University, that only 2 percent of CEOs at Fortune 500 companies are women.

"Research demonstrates that there's a very narrow bandwidth of acceptable behavior for women in positions of power, because they have to be feminine, but also exhibit the kind of attributes we look for in a leader," said Trigg, director of leadership programs at the institute.

"A female leader can't be too assertive and strident, because you get into the B word," Trigg said.

At least one expert doesn't see Clinton's "likability" problem as a gender issue.

Rather, said Steven Cohen, professor of public administration at Columbia University, it's that Clinton's straightforward, no-nonsense style pales in comparison with the often inspirational rhetoric coming from the charismatic Obama. "It's not her, it's him," Cohen said. "She's run into a political tsunami."

But, he said, "Hillary and Bill are right in saying the media is holding them to an unfair test. Who else is being asked the likability question? Is Rudy Giuliani being asked that question?" The former mayor, he noted, is the subject of a book titled Nasty Man, by fellow former Mayor Ed Koch.