Madeleine Albright Did Not Mean to Condemn Women Supporting Sanders

Hillary Clinton says her life’s work has been a battle to help women make their own choices, but the first rounds of the Democratic nomination race raised big doubts over whether America’s women will choose her as the country’s first female commander-in-chief.

And at the national level, 48 per cent of women say they would vote for Clinton and 38 per cent for Sanders, according to a Quinnipiac University poll conducted from February 2 to 4.

So when moderator Judy Woodruff noted that in the New Hampshire primary, “55 percent of women voters supported and voted for Senator Sanders”, and then asked Clinton, “What are women missing about you?”, it opened up an important line of conversation about just how much gender matters in this election. Comments that reprimand young women for not supporting Clinton because she is a woman reduce Clinton’s platform to her identity as a woman. So why should they be expected to settle for a status quo candidate like Clinton, to lay all their chips on the table for a woman they mistrust, whose politics are a watered-down version of her more progressive male rival’s? “That’s what I’ve always stood for”.

Clinton attempted to turn her New Hampshire loss among women voters into a positive reflection of female empowerment. But I have no argument with anyone making up her mind about who to support. She tried to intimidate women into voting for Clinton.

In terms of her message to young women, most of her congressional supporters said Sanders has benefited from having a simple economic message directed at young people.

Staunch Hillary Clinton supporter Madeleine Albright took a bite of humble pie Friday – talking back her maxim about a “special place in hell for women who don’t help each other” after the expression backfired and alienated voters Clinton is courting. In a talk show interview with Bill Maher, Steinem said that women are less politically active when young and only become more so as they “lose power” when they age, so as a result, they are simply following the men and attempting to impress men, who are generally supporting Sanders.

“It is a phrase I first used nearly 25 years ago, when I was the United States ambassador to the United Nations and worked closely with the six other female UN ambassadors”, she wrote.

“We need a leader on women’s issues”, Clinton said, “to protect the hard-fought gains that women have made that, make no mistake about it, are under tremendous attack”.

But she also insisted the feminist struggle was far from over, whether on pay, family leave, or equal career opportunities.