Emily Cain
JENNIFER PISCOPO’S argument that women have—and should fight for—the right to be elected is compelling. But in order to challenge the status quo, women must run in the U.S. political system as it exists today. Because of this, I want to talk about how this right often gets denied by the “electability” trap, and why pursuing a new normal is our best hope for getting more women elected. The goal of achieving an equal number of women and men in office is a good one; the goal of creating a society where women and men have true equal access and legitimacy in running for office may be a better one. If women have to run an obstacle course of sexism and double standards to get elected in equal numbers, then parity is not the only problem.
The focus of the 2020 Democratic primaries, which included four women, was electability. “Electability” is tossed around as if it is an objective measure, but electability—and its cousins “likeability” and “authenticity”—are just codes for “this candidate looks like what we’re used to.” Consider how flawed a metric electability is—and not just for women candidates. Both Barack Obama and Donald Trump, for instance, were assumed to be unelectable up until they got elected. The reality is that electability is determined on Election Day by voters, and past results are not always the best indicators of future elections. No one is great at predicting electability, including pollsters. Off-year polls in previous elections had Gary Hart beating George Bush, Walter Mondale beating Ronald Reagan, and Bob Dole beating Bill Clinton.