Hillary Clinton is playing the ‘woman’s card’. Just like the few women before her who have managed to breakthrough the noise and have a voice.
Yep, according to Republican frontrunner Donald Trump, she’d only be getting 5 per cent of the vote she’s getting if she were a man. She’s playing “the woman’s card’ and has “got nothing else going”, he told a rally in New York. “The beautiful thing is women don’t like her,” he added.
His accusation that Clinton would only be getting a fraction of the vote if she were male is a curious one, given we’re still yet to see a female president. Meanwhile recent exit polls show more women than men have been voting for Clinton over her rival Bernie Sanders.
We’ll remember that former prime minister Julia Gillard was often accused of playing the “gender card” as a means to distract voters from the REAL challenges facing Australia. Apparently she revealed her “true nature” when she dared to fight back on misogyny and sexism in politics, in what Paul Sheehan described as the lowest point in Australian politics in decades.
As Clinton fired back at Trump: “If fighting for women’s health care and paid family leave and equal pay is playing the ‘woman card,’ then deal me in.”
Meanwhile as Alexandra Petri from the Washington Post noted, carrying a “woman card” entitles you to, “… a sizable discount on your earnings everywhere you go (average 21 per cent, but can be anywhere from nine per cent to 37 per cent, depending on what study you’re reading and what edition of the Woman Card you have.).”
And as social media chimed in, hashtags like #dealmein and #womancard started trending across the globe.
We thought this from @amber_coffman was rather clever.
Where would I be without my #womancard pic.twitter.com/Z3lQpDiubq
— Amber Coffman (@Amber_Coffman) April 27, 2016
In Australia, that “woman card’ would see you earning an average 17.3% less than men — or a gap much higher in industries like banking and finance.
Is there anything actually wrong with playing the “woman card” or the “gender card” or whatever you want to call it? If you’re a woman who’s managed to breakthrough to a significant leadership position you’re remarkable, and it’d be great if you could use the woman thing to call out behaviours you deem detrimental to gender equality.
Trump’s comments saw US Today show host Matt Lauer later ask him if he even cares that most American women view him negatively.
“Of course I care,” Trump replied. “Nobody respects women more than I do.”
Right.
Men have been playing their own gender cards for centuries. Let’s start dealing out more for the women.