With women losing major races, some question role of gender bias

This year’s Democratic primary election saw the defeat of three major female candidates by men in top races, disappointing some political observers and advocates who say women are still struggling to navigate gender bias despite a heightened consciousness around women’s rights issues in the past couple of years.

Congresswoman Colleen Hanabusa’s defeat by Gov. David Ige in the governor’s race was particularly troubling for some who say that Ige benefited from a culture of male privilege, while Hanabusa had to work to soften her image to come off as more “likable” — a situation reminiscent of Hillary Clinton’s problems in her race against President Donald Trump.

“Here is an extremely accomplished politician, with every kind of credential, including having been a member of Congress, having been in a very prestigious position as Senate president, and a nebbish and ineffectual male politician defeated her and of all things ran on a platform that was laughable in my view, which is to say leadership,” said Meda Chesney-Lind, a professor of women’s studies at the University of Hawaii at Manoa. “It’s the kind of male privilege that … men can just count on this.”

Ige has been criticized throughout his term as lacking leadership skills, which for many Hawaii residents was underscored by January’s false missile alert. But Ige managed to subvert the criticism to some degree by actually campaigning on his quiet style and coming up with the campaign slogan of “Doing the right thing, the right way, for the right reasons.”

Hanabusa also struggled with coming off as too aggressive or being seen as too negative in her criticism of Ige, which could have backfired. Her campaign often seemed to be trying to temper her image as too hard-charging. The attempts to soften her image could be especially seen in the final days of the campaign, with video showing Hanabusa with her mother.

A campaign ad produced by the Hawaii Council of Carpenters’ super PAC, Be Change Now, which operated independently of the Hanabusa campaign, played off Hanabusa’s female accomplishments, noting that she became the first woman to lead the Senate “and went to Washington to fight for women’s rights.” But the ad was also interspersed with images of children, which some say was an attempt to make her more “likable.”

“This is the constant double standard that we hold women politicians to. You can’t be seen as a strong and decisive leader because we have this expectation that women are going to be soft and fuzzy and in photos with little kids,” said Chesney-­Lind. “There is no need to soften a male politician, but there is the need when you have a strong and effective female leader to have her look warm and fuzzy, and it then trivializes her accomplishments.”

Power struggle

Ann Freed, co-chairwoman of the Hawaii Women’s Coalition, said women have an easier time when they are in power, as opposed to trying to take power, something that worked against Hanabusa in her attempts to unseat an incumbent.

“Women are not supposed to take power, it’s not nice,” she said. “We are supposed to be nice girls.”

Other women who lost major races this year include state Sen. Donna Mercado Kim, who lost her congressional bid to Ed Case. State Sen. Jill Tokuda also narrowly lost to her Senate colleague Josh Green in the lieutenant governor’s race.

Amy Agbayani, a longtime civil rights advocate in Hawaii, said she had supported Hanabusa, Tokuda and Kim and was disappointed that they hadn’t been successful, particularly in the wake of the Women’s March on Washington, D.C., Clinton’s loss to Trump and the “Me Too” movement.

“So I thought the environment was going to be very interested in welcoming new faces and women,” said Agbayani. “But I think I was reminded that really there are so many barriers to women actively becoming leaders.”

Agbayani said that part of the problem is that in Hawaii there have been two acceptable leadership styles, particularly among Japanese-­Americans: the strong male, who is outspoken and aggressive, and a more local style of the quiet and effective male. She said this was a Catch-22 for women because they can’t be seen as too aggressive, and if they are quiet they won’t get anywhere.

John Hart, chairman of the Communications Department at Hawaii Pacific University, said gender did indeed play a role in the primary election, just as it does in any political race, but so did other factors, such as ethnicity, age and income. He said he didn’t think gender was a deciding factor in the governor’s race.

He said the bigger factor in Hanabusa’s loss was the decision by super PAC Be Change Now not to spend money on her race until late in the campaign, and Hana­busa’s strategy of playing defense for too long. Both of these allowed Ige to catch up after trailing in a March Honolulu Star-Advertiser poll by 20 percentage points.

As for attempts to soften Hanabusa’s image, he said that this might not have helped. “Part of trustworthiness is sincerity, and any time you tweak a candidate into something they are not, voters can sense that,” he said.

“You can make an argument in retrospect that maybe they should have let Colleen be Colleen,” he said.

Hart noted that in other races women did prevail over men. For instance, political newcomer Sharon Moriwaki successfully ousted Brickwood Galuteria to claim the state Senate seat representing Kakaako, McCully and Waikiki.