I spent my summer in Dirksen Senate Office Building in Washington, D.C., listening in on Senate hearings as part of my job. One of the first and most important things I realized as I listened to various lawmakers argue with one another was the way in which female senators and witnesses spoke in contrast to their male colleagues.
The men tended to soliloquize, drawing out their points with long digressions and personal points. The women spoke fluidly, always cutting straight to the point they were trying to make. They never came even close to going over their allotted speaking time.
As I realized this pattern, I began to empathize with the women. If they spoke in the same pedantic manner as their male counterparts, they would be labeled as obnoxious show-offs. I know because I’ve been put under that same label countless times.
Even the pitches of the women’s voices were all very similar: low, but not too low; their tone was measured but not too obviously. The men could get away with having folksier, down-home type speech patterns.
The nature of being a powerful woman is fraught. We make strides constantly. We’re an ever more powerful gender. But we’re still bogged down by an underlying sexism that seems as if it can’t be tamped down.
Recently, I saw a video on the internet that labeled Hillary Clinton’s presidential campaign the by-product of being a “bored housewife.”
Politics aside, Hillary Clinton is anything but a “bored housewife.” Her career history includes lawyer, First Lady, senator and Secretary of State. Her “wife” title is secondary at best. No one would ever deign to call our current Secretary of State, John Kerry, a “bored husband.” He is in a position of power and he is male. He does not have to prove his competence, and he isn’t identified by his position as a husband and father.
I obviously can’t relate my own life experiences to those of Hillary Clinton. But I can relate to the difficulties of being a woman and being taken seriously.
If I’m angry, I have to maintain my cool and refrain from raising my voice, or else I’ll be labeled as crazy. If I’m upset and cry, I’m labeled as over-emotional. I can be excited, but not too excited or else I’m being too girly. I can like wearing dresses, but not too much or else I’m a try-hard. But if I like wearing pants too much? Well, just look at the way the press treats Hillary Clinton’s pantsuits.
mcelfrdh14@bonaventure.edu
