Hillary’s Experience, Redux

Steiger follows up her remarks defending Clinton’s experience against the hoards of young, male, Obama supporters (me and minipundit).  She claims:

Patrick Healy’s article [addressed] a question that’s been bubbling below the surface throughout the primary season: When you are a woman married to a politician, do you count? How much? Does it matter? I don’t expect female candidates for president to be held to “lower standards,” but rather I asked a question. What does count? The answer was overwhelmingly in favor of the existing paradigm.

The fact that my post engendered such a vehement no suggests that women face endless challenges when it comes to the merging of public and private lives. Clinton seems to serve as a cautionary tale to young women; if you decide to support your partner in his endeavor for office, you may forever forgo your own desire to do the same. Male politicians, on the other hand, rarely face challenges framed in the same way.

I really don’t see how Clinton is being treated “unfairly” - the point Minipundit and I were trying to make was that there’s no reason to think that, as a normative issue, the experience of two candidates should be evaluated differently based on gender.  And while Steiger is right that women face “endless challenges” in pursuing political offices, I think she is wrong to say that Clinton is a “cautionary tale” because she is now facing questions over her experience that are rooted in her deciding to support Bill in his political ambitions.  What made the Healy article so important was that she has made “experience” the center point  of her campaign.   When it’s exposed that her claims to be more experienced than Obama or Edwards are largely bogus, that was what mattered.

It’s true that women have to face more challenges in getting the experience to be seriously considered for public office, but it’s also true that there are plenty of female politicians who have the qualifications and experience to be president.  And while it’s true that, within a couple, it’s hard for both partners to get presidential qualifications, this is hardly unfair. Clinton, instead of being hampered by supporting her husband, has been elevated by Bill’s being president.  Compare that to most political spouses, male or female, and it’s hard to say that Clinton has suffered for having a political husband.