Yesterday, the United States of America elected its 45^th president. After a historic election filled with mudslinging, negativity and record low disapproval ratings, Donald J. Trump emerged victorious. Women were predicted to be the deciding vote in this election, but data collected from last night shows that Hillary Clinton’s rhetoric did not have quite the impact on this demographic that she was hoping for. Instead of shattering the glass ceiling, she realized the polarizing effect her campaign rhetoric actually had on women voters, sending many over to Trump’s camp.

Despite her loss, she still made sure to address women in her concession speech. She thanked the women that had supported her saying that nothing made her prouder “than being their champion.” She also addressed young girls, empowering them to live in the confidence that they are “deserving of every chance and opportunity in the world to pursue and achieve your dreams.” Her tone of the entire was much more approachable than it had been during any part of the campaign. Donald Trump’s acceptance speech was also much softer spoken than any previous speech he had given. Now that the election is over, it is interesting to look at the shifts in the campaign.

This battle began with the argument of one candidate being unstable and one candidate being untrustworthy. Surrogates like Michelle Obama shifted that argument to being good vs. evil. Finally, the campaign rhetoric created two groups, the deplorables and the nasty women, as Ana Navarro would say, who hashed it out in the polls. Both of these rhetorically created groups were depending on women, but in the end, Trump’s campaign for change to pulled enough women to his side despite the misogynist language he used.

Ana Navarro said today on The View that the U.S. has stepped through the looking glass to enter Wonderland, and that we are now sitting across from Alice herself. I’d have to agree with her. This election has been nothing short of crazy, and the response from women voters has ranged from celebration to heartbreak. I think the media’s involvement in this election combined with the gloom and doom rhetoric of the campaign has resulted in a frenzied electorate of women voters. I think that the group will become more polarized in the future as a result of the divisive language in this campaign. However, I also think that the rhetoric could result in a major feminist movement similar to the one Susan B. Anthony led many years ago. The women of America are strong willed and powerful, always fighting for what they believe in, and regardless of political affiliation, I think that this election has spurred them on to keep fighting for the future they want in America.

 

 

This election is going to make history, whether the first female president is elected or whether the largest gender gap in history is made. It wasn’t until the late 19^th century until women had the right to vote. Since then women have been using this to their advantage, especially with this election. Not only do we have a female candidate, but we now have more women turning out to vote.

“An average of three recent national polls shows that women prefer Clinton by roughly 13 points, while men prefer Trump by 12, totaling a 25-point gap.” This gap could be the largest in modern history. This may be due to the fact that the major party candidate is a female, however it could just be the women’s party identification.In women’s voting history, they have heavily voted Democratically. People’s party identification plays a larger role then demographic factors. However, Trump has played a large part to moving the women’s vote Hillary’s way.

Trump plays a major role in this gender gap. As everyone knows, the media has portrayed Trump as being a racist, and being sexist. Since the audio tapes were released, many women were disgusted with him. Over half of all women voters were unfavorable of Trump at one point. This leads to the conclusion that he could be pushing women’s votes Hillary’s way. Since the audio tapes were released so late in the election, Trump did not have much time to fix the issue. His campaign has always been primarily focused on masulinity and it has overall stayed that way till tonight.

With only a couple of hours left in the election, we will find out if the women voters turned out and voted the way their history has been. I believe that they will, and Hillary will end up being the next president. With Trumps allienation of women, as well as Hillary’s debate tactic reaching out to the specific audience of women, the gender gap will become the largest it has ever been in over 60 years.

 

This years’ election has been one for the record books. Never have we had two candidates run for the Presidential Office with this amount of controversy enveloping both parties. I think that it is safe to say that the majority of voters this year are not one hundred percent satisfied with either candidate that they had to choose from.

However, many voters, especially women are taking a stand, declaring that Hillary is exactly what this country has needed for quite some time. This is an interesting statement, and one that should be thoroughly examined.

Women have been the biggest factor, I believe in this election. Women, especially Republican women, will have a large impact on what happens this upcoming Tuesday. Celebrities such as Katy Perry, Miley Cyrus, and the Kardashian family have given Hillary great publicity throughout her campaign. And finally, Michelle Obama has been a great surrogate speaker for Hillary, especially when trying to attack Trump’s weak points in an eloquent and strong feminine way.

These are all women that support Hillary and will keep supporting her through Tuesday. However, the question that goes through my mind at the end of the day, being a woman, is: Are women voting for Hillary because she is the right fit for office? OR are women voting for Hillary primarily because she is a woman?

With some of Hillary’s biggest supporters all being women, we must question ourselves and the true underlying reasons for our support, especially gender, in this election. This question in itself is extremely controversial, and I probably will receive backlash for asking it, but it is a valid point.

The women’s right movement has been growing and growing and truly come to a peak in this election. It is an incredible victory to have a woman on the ballot and have a true possibility of having our first female President. But it also the perfect time in our history for a woman to get elected to the ballot. This perfect timing is something to note especially when we consider the campaign rhetoric that has been used in Hillary’s camp.

The slogan, “I’m With Her,” is truly the first of its kind. It is revolutionary and historical and packs major punches from many different rhetorical angles. I think this is why it has been so popular and withstood throughout this campaign season. But this slogan has almost become a popular, and dare I say it,’cool’ thing to say and post on social media and other rhetorical realms. It has almost taken away from the character of Hillary and lent itself to gender alone.

 

This could be a hidden rhetorical strategy of sorts if we look at it in the perspective of a skeptic or Republican. Hillary has had many controversial and unsettling things come up in the past couple weeks in regards to her infamous email scandal. But people have steadily remained to post this slogan, without a thought. This makes me wonder, because the slogan refers, ‘her,’ do we forget about Hillary and focus on gender and that specific realm of her overall character? Because we gravitate towards women and their motherly nature. We are drawn to a nurturing and protective female figure. But Hillary has proven many times she does not embody this type of character.

Hillary has accomplished so much in her life. I would never want to take away from a female who has succeeded so much in a realm of work that is so male dominated. However, I want to bring to light the magnitude of the situation we are in and truly make people think about their reasoning behind their vote. There are so many successful women in politics and I am so excited about the possibility of this becoming a more steady trend in this area. But I want women to vote for women because they believe these women are truly worthy and up to the challenge ahead. I want us to be content with who are President is, regardless of their gender.

So are we voting for Her? OR for Hillary?

 

It is no secret that social media is a “HUGE” *in Trump’s voice, factor in deciding the 2016 election. In fact, a panel at the 2016 Fortune Most Powerful Women Next Gen Summit, in San Francisco, this past week, argued that this election is marked as the “social media revolution” election. Social media platforms allow for new faces and new candidates to ramp up their surfacing stage appearance. Through platforms such as Twitter and Snapchat, candidates are not only able to gain name recognition amongst millennial but they’re also able to create a personal one on one connection with voters like never before. This utilization of social media in political campaigns has rhetorically constructed an image of authenticity around candidates having an effective and strategic appeal to voters, especially millennials. It is also important to recognize the idea that this era provides the environment for outgoing candidates to thrive while introverted candidates fall behind. This has allowed candidates, like Donald Trump and his use of Twitter for example, to clog up consumer’s feeds with a commotion of twitter rants. The panel, made up of women CEO’s from multiple companies, determined that this “loud” behavior over social media doesn’t exactly mean you’ve got the presidency in the bag.

This panel and this conference gave many insights and opinions on this election but it is also important to look at the symbolic role this type of conference has in our society. For years, men have held summits discussing their financial and business successes. Here, we have powerful, influential and successful women talking about and informing people on their lives and society today and more importantly how they can improve this world that we live in. I think this is imperative to point out that despite the relatively new age of women occupying this type of corporate successful role, women have found it a priority to give back to society. These women who have pioneered and championed over a patriarchal society to occupy highly coveted corporate positions have found it critical to create a community that empowers women and focuses on making these roles the standard for all women in the future.

 

Source: http://fortune.com/2015/12/01/social-media-2016-election/

 

Politics are dominated by men. Out of the 535 members of Congress, 445 are men. Similar men to women ratios can be found in a variety of fields like finance, business and technology services. With equality movements and modern feminist thought permeating our society more than ever, these ratios may seem like they should be antiquated statistics, so what is holding women back from having more power in government or higher positions in the business world? A 2015 study would say that it’s because women seeking power are held to much higher standards than men seeking power. Being just a week away from a new president that may be a woman, this notion has been proven over and over throughout the 2016 campaign for the presidency.

Hillary Clinton has been a politician for decades. She has connections, an established presence, foreign affairs experience, served as Secretary of State, and has been a First Lady; the list could go on and on. Donald Trump has never held political office, divided his own party, and used some of the foulest and derogatory language that has ever been used in a campaign, and yet he has held his own in the polls. The argument can be made that this is because Trump’s success is because he represents a constituency that has legitimate concerns and fears for our country that they feel Trump can fix, which is a completely valid. However, I think is also largely a gender issue.

              vs.

 

Trump has structured his argument against Clinton to pit all of her vast experience against her. Despite her accomplishments, Trump has been able to turn Hillary into what one report calls “the single most scrutinized, parsed, vetted, investigated, attacked and plaudited non-incumbent to ever seek the presidency.” Trump has had even more advantage in constructing his argument because of Clinton’s email scandal. This incident has allowed Trump to press the rhetorical argument that Clinton is untrustworthy, but rhetorically this holds more weight because Clinton is a woman. Trump has demonstrated that for a man running as president to stand in front of the camera and lie to the American electorate is an acceptable occurrence, expected even, but for a woman to do the same is seemingly despicable and even bad enough to keep her from holding political office.

Clinton’s surrogates have been trying to reverse Trump’s rhetoric with their own. President Obama recently gave a speech where he implied that men that don’t vote for Clinton are sexist, which is a strong use of rhetorical implication that is not based on any concern for political policy. Regardless of how successful her surrogates are, I think that these gendered expectations will be reflected in the results of the election. I think that it is fair to say that if Hillary loses it will very likely be because as a woman she is held to a higher standard than Donald Trump ever will be. I don’t think he would have come so far if that weren’t the case.

 

 

As this years’ Presidential election is coming to a quick close, many supporters and surrogates are coming out to convince and encourage undecided voters to sway their way. As we have talked about in class, October surprises have also been of a greater influence than we initially calculated with the new release of more emails and the FBI investigation. With these variable in mind, the media, and many famous and influential women have spoken out about their candidate of choice.

Recently, we have seen many videos of celebrities coming together to further in Hilary’s aid. Some of these celebrities include Demi Lovato, Katy Perry, and Miley Cyrus. In fact, Katy Perry and Miley Cyrus were both filmed going into places such as college campuses supporting young millennials to get out and vote for Hilary. We even saw Katy Perry using the phrase, “nasty woman,” the unfortunate rhetoric Trump used in the last debate, to her advantage my putting it on her t-shirt.

Another extremely influential group of women that have come out and endorsed Hilary was the Kardashians. Even with the amount of controversy that follows this household name around, this support has most likely played somewhat of an influential role in swaying young millennials that religiously partake in their shows and smart phone apps.

The support of the female vote will be the deciding factor in this election. Although the more unpredictable vote will be that of the more conservative female, women have overall played a huge role in garnering support for Hilary.

And although we have already concluded that celebrities have traditionally tended to support the Democratic party, the importance of the famous female vote is more important than ever. With the introduction of smart phone apps and social media, women are far more influential than ever in getting their thoughts out to the public and their fans. Along with this idea, the women’s rights movement has reached a new peak and has almost become a trend.

So, with all of this being said, no matter the outcome of this election, I think it is safe to say that the 2016 election has proven to be the most female-influenced election the United States has ever had. This is a very exciting idea and notion, seeing how far we have come as a country. However, it will prove to be extremely interesting to see how this trend will influence future elections. Will future female candidates automatically get the female vote due to recent conflicts raised around Planned Parenthood? Or will women once again pull towards a more traditional male centered election? Only time will tell.

In Winston-Salem, North Carolina, Michelle Obama gave a powerful speech for Hillary’s campaign rally. The speech that was given by Michelle was a strong defense against women. Michelle went on to support Hillary against Trump. What affect will this have on the election? Why does having Michelle speak on Hillary’s behalf demonstrate to the people?

 

This speech was directed to the audience in order to gain more supporters and in this case Obama supporters. Michelle is acting as a surrogate for Hillary that could push to end Trump. In her speech Michelle stated; “This candidate calls on us to turn against each other, to build walls, to be afraid,” Obama said. “And then there’s Hillary’s vision for this country — a vision of a nation that is powerful and vibrant and strong, big enough to have a place for all of us. A nation where we each have something very special to contribute and where we are always stronger together.” Michelle not only is directing this to a certain group of American, but all of them.

 

Michelle Obama has been very active in the white house, influencing children, military families, and the youth. She has played a strong role in getting children the proper education as well as helping them lead a healthy life. These views touch the emotions of mothers across the U.S who what their children to strive. With having a strong influential history with women and the youth, being a surrogate for Hillary is very beneficial.

 

Michelle has also worked directly with younger women who have come to the white house. In her speech she said “I told them they deserve to be treated with dignity and respect,” Obama said at the time. “I wanted them to understand that the measure of any society is how it treats women and girls.” She has had experience in seeing young women being abused and discriminated against and she is using it to support her cause and to attack Trump. Michelle is considered a symbolic device, because of her husband’s incumbency she is a strong figure in the political world. She has legitimacy of the office so she knows who needs to be in it in order to be successful at it.

 

Now that the October Surprise is out in the open, having Michelle speak for Hillary may help her hold on to her voters. I think that this influence will help boost Hillary’s morale, even with all of the controversy going on. I think that Michelle will be a strong force that will push the election forward for Hillary.

August 18th, 1920 was the day that women were granted the right to vote. A right that men had enjoyed one-hundred-and-thirty-one years preceding the 19^th amendment since the first president, George Washington, was elected in 1789. So with women being eligible to vote for twenty-four of the most recent presidential election cycles, what is their role in presidential voting today? Women haven’t taken women’s suffrage for granted and we have outnumbered men in voter turnout since the election in 1980 and the gender gap has continued to grow.

I think a mix of factors is attributed to women’s greater voter turnout and they all are directly linked to their role in the 21^st century. First off women have become increasingly depended on public services like childcare, healthcare, and food stamps. It has also become more likely for women to be the primary caregivers so they must deal with government programming and services such as schools. Therefore they are directly affected by the government’s public services on a daily basis. Another reason, that reflects more of women’s evolved role in society today is simply that women are more empowered today as we are in the era of post-feminism. Prior to 1980, it was more taboo for women to be involved in politics because it didn’t fit the strict confines of a feminine gender characterization.

With more and more empowered women showing up over the years to the polls on Election Day, it begs the question what this 2016 election numbers will look like. Knowing this, it seems like a no-brainer that Hillary Clinton, the first woman presidential candidate nominee of a major political party, would sweep the polls. Especially as her opponent represents the face of White patriarchy and misogyny. So I do have to say, the odds are looking good for her to be the first female president of the United States in 2017.

Sources:

https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/catherine-rampell-why-women-are-far-more-likely-to-vote-then-men/2014/07/17/b4658192-0de8-11e4-8c9a-923ecc0c7d23_story.html?utm_term=.d68dfd6039c8

A closer look at the gender gap in presidential voting