Well if you’re Hillary Clinton, you retreat to the woods – for a period. But then you emerge more liberated, more able and more ready to speak out than ever before. For Clinton, that means addressing the “unfinished business of the 21st Century”: The fights and opportunities of girls and women.
Clinton revealed as much during her first major media interview since the election, conceding that she was devastated by her 2016 presidential loss, a race that she had expected to win. She said she’s still questioning why so many women voted against her, including 53% of white women – something she’s addressing in a book being written about the election campaign.
Speaking to the New York Times’ Nicholas Kristof at the Women in the World Summit, Clinton said she’s certain that “misogyny played a role” in her defeat, along with a number of other factors, including her own mistakes.
It was a crushing, humiliating blow. But she also knew she had to move on.
“I just had to make up my mind that, yes, I was going to get out of bed, and, yes, I was going to go for a lot of long walks in the woods. And I was going to see my grandchildren and spend a lot of time with my family and my friends.”
She urged young women who wanted to be in public life to “toughen up your skin” and to be prepared for relentless negativity that is just as “painful” every new time it happens to you.
She also noted how far her approval rated slipped by election day. “By the time they finished with me, I was Typhoid Mary,” she said.
Following Clinton’s speculation that misogyny may have played a role in her defeat, the Washington Post over the weekend looked at research from the Barbara Lee Family. It found that voters hold female politicians to difference standards than their male counterparts, and that women are unable to “just be themselves” when running for office. Female candidates need to constantly analyse everything, from how they smile to the makeup they wear (or don’t wear) and their clothing choices. It also found that voters care more about the “likeability” of female politicians than they do about male politicians.
Indeed the Foundation has put together a number of suggestions for aspiring female politicians, ranging on everything from circulating informal photos (rather than headshots) to sharing personal anecdotes, to appreciating that voters will scrutinise your appearance and, my favourite, avoiding constantly taking credit for your accomplishments – you need to be sharing that with your team.
We might not like these suggestions, but they’ve not been provided to intentionally frustrate and annoy ambitious women. Rather, they reflect a reality in which women candidates are still held to different standards than male candidates and need to play the game accordingly, if they wish to win.
In a wide ranging discussion – in which Clinton also advocated for attacking Syrian air strips (which happened hours after this interview) – Clinton said she was particularly concerned by the current administration’s “targeting of women”, noting President Donald Trump’s immediate move to cut funding to overseas health providers that promote abortion rights. She said her favourite internet meme was one that mimic’s a picture of Trump sitting with a group of Republican men discussing women’s health, it featured a bunch of day’s discussing feline health care.
“As a person, I’m OK. As an American, I’m pretty worried,” she said.
Over the weekend, Nicholas Kristof wrote that following the interview, Clinton walked backstage with her and signed an event poster as Hillary Rodham Clinton. Having found herself dropping the “Rodham” at various parts of her career, including during the 2016 presidential race (possibly in order to appear less ‘feminist), Kristoff wrote that she’s “free at last”.
Watch the Rodham Clinton interview below: