The Media No Longer Holding Back Female Candidates

The mid-term elections was a huge success for many women politicians. Iowa for the first time in history will have a woman in Congress and Mia Love is now the first African American Republican woman to win a congressional seat. Next year will the first time, women will occupy more than 100 seats in Congress.

This has become a huge step forward for women pursuing careers in politics as women are starting to succeed in political elections. For years media has been the blame for women politicians not being able to win elections, as the media has a bad habit of bashing women candidates. According to an article in the Washington Post from, many believe the media isn't holding back female candidates at all. The article states, "virtually there's no differences in the content of coverage for men and women. In those races, women were just as likely to receive coverage as men. We found that male and female candidates were associated with the same issues and traits. And not only were mentions of the candidates’ gender – references to physical appearance, clothes, family roles and so forth – quite rare, they occurred with the same frequency for men and women." 

After writing this blog for the past three months I don't personally agree that the media coverage on men and women are the same, but I do believe that over time that media will finally start to treat everyone equally. This is just the beginning as more women will hopefully start running for office.

Hillary Clinton Too Old For Presidency

Your Too Old To Become President

Fox News has truly gone too great heights in criticizing Hillary Clinton's age in the run up and coming 2016 Presidential Elections. Many of the Fox News hosts have questioned whether being a grandmother would hurt Clinton politically. Some has even suggested that Clinton gets plastic surgery before running for president. Also in a November 9th interview with Politico, Sen. Rand Paul suggested that Clinton, may be too old to successfully campaign for president. Paul stated, "it's a very taxing undertaking to go through. It's a rigorous physical ordeal, I think, to be able to campaign for the presidency."

Neil Cavuto Response

On the November 11th edition of Fox News Your World, host Neil Cavuto defended Hillary Clinton, by calling Paul's comments "so base and so cheap." He also went on and talked about Clinton's achievements as Secretary of State by stating, "I think it's fair to say Hillary Clinton was up to the physical rigors of the job and then some."

My Opinion 

I personally found Sen. Paul's and a few other Fox News host comments very rude and offensive to women. Stating that Clinton should consider plastic surgery is ridiculous and shows that women are often judged more on their looks and less on their intelligence and ability to lead a country. John McCain and Ronald Regan were both older when they ran for president than Clinton will be if she decides to run in the 2016 race. Former President Regan was 69 when elected into office and McCain was 71 when running for President in 2008. Both Regan and McCain were clearly grandfathers when running for office but when a women is a grandmother running for president it's now a problem. Mitt Ronmey was also a grandfather when he ran for president, but the media never focused negatively on him being a grandfather in the presidential race. Once again women are negatively judged based on appearance than smarts.

Cosmopolitan Maganize Encourages It's Readers to Vote

 

#CosmoVotes

In August 2014, Cosmopolitan magazine decided to expand it's coverage to include politics, by launching the #CosmoVotes campaign which focuses on candidate endorsements, coverage of women-centric issues, and a social media effort to encourage readers to vote. The purpose for this campaign was to enlighten their readers to think about important issues, as they show support for women and politics. Many celebrities took part of this campaign as it was a huge success on social media.

Gretchen Carlson's Opinion

On the November 3 edition of The Real Story, host Gretchen Carlson criticized Cosmopolitan magazine take on politics, as she suggested that the magazine is "taking it a step too far." Carlson seemed to be upset that the magazine wasn't supporting Republican candidates, as she stated "they basically say some kind of snarky words about any Republican candidate, calling them 'troubling,' 'an extremist who rails against the poor,' 'an anti-choice radical." Carlson questions the magazine's decision to endorse certain candidates, saying, "A lot of people are probably wondering why fashion magazines are getting into politics and actually endorsing candidates but that is the world that we live in now."

My Opinion

A Fox News host criticizing something supporting women and voting honestly doesn't surprise me, as Carlson's comments come weeks after other Fox News host rudely suggested that young women shouldn't even vote. I think it's great that women magazines are starting to endorse politics. Just because you are a women's fashion magazines doesn't mean you can't encourage your readers to vote. I do understand Carlson didn't like that Cosmopolitan magazine didn't really endorse Republican candidates, but that's their choice. I have seen many TV shows that repeatedly criticize Republicans and Democrats, but if you don't like it then just don't watch the show or in this case just don't read the magazine. I think it's awesome that more companies are more getting involved in politics.