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Are most women who run for president unlikable? Asking is sexist, yet many voters agree.
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Are most women who run for president unlikable? Asking is sexist, yet many voters agree.

Jodi Edna discusses the inherent sexism of asking voters if most women who run for president "just aren't that likeable."

Cue the misogyny. Again.

The latest example comes from a poll of registered voters in six states expected to play outsize roles in the 2020 presidential race. Nearly four in 10 (38%) of these potentially pivotal voters agreed with this overtly sexist statement: “Sometimes, it feels like most women who run for president just aren’t that likable.”

The very statement — posited in a recent New York Times-Siena College poll — is at once infuriating and comical, blatantly sexist and rather preposterous. This is, after all, the first time in U.S. history that one might reasonably ask any question involving most women. And while it is not the first time one might credibly ask whether the plethora of men who run for president are likable, the mere thought of that question is, well, not thought of.

The above excerpt was originally published in USA Today. Click here to view the full article.

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Authors

Jodi Enda

Senior Fellow