Women should not feel obligated to vote for a candidate of their own gender

Being eligible to vote in the coming presidential election is an exciting prospect. When I registered to vote a couple weeks ago, I felt confident enough in my beliefs to declare myself a member of the Democratic party. The decision was a big deal for me. For a while, I had planned on registering as unaffiliated.

My thought process for my decision was that I did not want to feel obliged to vote for a candidate based on their party or because they were the popular choice among my peers. I wanted to ensure whoever I voted for was representative of my personal beliefs, not what I had convinced myself I had to believe in order to fit into a certain platform or demographic.

So you might be able to guess my reaction when I heard former Secretary of State Madeleine Albright’s introduction at a Clinton rally in New Hampshire on February 6. After reminding the audience that the feminist plight is not yet over, Albright concluded the sentiment with this: “There’s a special place in hell for women who don’t help each other!”

It was not the prospect of eternal damnation that terrified me with this statement—it was the idea that according to Albright, as a female, I was compelled to vote for Clinton, even if I disagreed with her policies. If I chose not to, any feminist values I held would be made irrelevant.

The repercussions of her statement could be seen in the New Hampshire primaries just three days after. Clinton suffered a 20-point defeat to fellow Democratic candidate Bernie Sanders. According to a poll conducted by CNN, Clinton also lost the female vote by 10 points to Sanders.

Albright was not the only Clinton supporter that day to send shock waves into the feminist community. Gloria Steinem, a feminist icon, made some questionable statements regarding the reason the young female demographic has been leaning towards Sanders—the reason being “the boys are with Bernie.”

This allegation was even more shocking to me.

What Steinem appeared to be insinuating was that female youth could not be trusted to make informed decisions regarding politics. This was tough to hear coming from a woman who has spent her life as an advocate for equal rights and reproductive freedoms.

To me, these comments indicate that, as a society, we have still yet to achieve true gender equality. The Nineteenth Amendment was not passed so that, when a woman went down to a polling place, her vote could be predetermined based on her sex.

However, Clinton managed to redeem herself at the Democratic debate on February 11.

“I have spent my entire adult life working toward making sure that women are empowered to make their own choices, even if that choice is not to vote for me,” Clinton said. “I believe that it’s most important that we unleash the full potential of women and girls in our society.” I will be the first to admit that I have been straddling the line between the two candidates.

However, despite the insensitivity of the Albright and Steinem comments, voters should continue to weigh their decisions based on the platforms of the candidates and not be misled by the drama surrounding them.

#primaries