Ohio Women Lawmakers Face Misogyny, Double Standards When Campaigning
Originally published by Susan Tebben for the Ohio Capital Journal
When Kamala Harris was announced as the running mate for Joe Biden in the 2020 presidential campaign, the questions about her heritage, ethnicity and even eligibility for office came strongly from the opposition.
Now that she’s running for the top job following President Joe Biden’s suspension of his reelection campaign, the emphasis on her skin color and her gender has come back fast and furious, just as swiftly as the enthusiasm for her campaign brings big fundraising numbers to the camp.
“The United States has conflicting traditions,” said Dr. Susan Burgess, distinguished professor emerita of political science at Ohio University. “One of rampant racism and misogyny, and another toward greater change and inclusion.”
U.S. Sen. J.D. Vance of Ohio, the vice presidential candidate alongside former president Donald Trump, added to the rhetoric in a 2021 clip that has been brought back up in light of his new role. In the clip from a Fox News interview, he mentions the fact that Harris (and others) has not birthed any children of her own (she has two stepchildren with First Gentleman Doug Emhoff), and criticizes Democrats as “a bunch of childless cat ladies who are miserable at their own lives and so they want to make the rest of the country miserable, too.”
The comments don’t surprise those who are a part of or study the history of political campaigns, where sexism and misogyny are “alive and well,” according to Ohio University history professor Dr. Katherine Jellison.
“A man running for office, I’ve never heard comments about him being a childless cat/dog/fish person,” Jellison said. “These double standards are so blatantly on display and voiced whenever we have a prominent woman running.”
‘Attacks on the person, not the policy’
For women currently in the state legislature, criticism based on gender and family is nothing new. Even in local campaigns, female politicians have been underestimated and questioned on their merits in ways they say they don’t witness in male campaigns.
The Capital Journal contacted every female state representative and senator in the Ohio General Assembly to talk about their experience campaigning and working in politics. Included in the those who responded were the leaders of the minority side in both chambers, House Minority Leader Allison Russo and Senate Minority Leader Nickie Antonio.
Consistently, those that responded said they have talked to constituents with all sorts of interests and issues, and worked with local campaigns or in favor of local issues before they worked their way up to state office. Also consistently, it was their community and their families that were their biggest advocates.
Often, the women who are now representatives and senators didn’t intend to pursue politics until they were encouraged to or an issue motivated them to action. For most, misogyny wasn’t blatant, but the fact that they worked among a “boy’s club” was still highlighted.
“People told me I couldn’t win because, you know,” Antonio told the Capital Journal. “And I would make them say what that was, and it was because I was a lesbian.”
She faced the criticism of being a woman running for office, but called it a “false narrative that some people embrace, that I think they want to hang on to because frankly, I think we’re better at the job.”
The first time state Rep. Sharon Ray, R-Wadsworth, campaigned back in the early 1990s, she said she knocked on the door of a man in her community. She explained that she was running for local office and had a conversation with him about local issues.
“At the end he said, ‘You seem nice and all, but I would never vote for a woman,’” Ray said. “I had to tell him, ‘Well you’re in a bad way, because the two people going up for this are both women.’”
State Rep. Bride Rose Sweeney fought against the fact that not only was she a woman running for office, but she was also a 25-year-old.
“Most people, when I’d go to the door, thought I was selling Girl Scout cookies,” she said.
Though she had worked as a staffer in the Statehouse and could point to quotes she’d written for elected officials, she still had to answer questions about her life experience.
“I was shocked at how many times they didn’t think I was the candidate,” Sweeney said.
As a single mom who had adopted her children from China, state Rep. Rachel Baker went through a similar struggle to other moms running for office, in that she balanced taking care of her family and campaigning.
But when Chinese flags appeared around her campaigns signs in the yards of her supporters, put there anonymously in the dark of night, she saw a different side of campaigning.