Can Feminist Postliberalism Survive the 2016 Election?
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2018 by the Southern Political Science Association. All rights reserved. Did Hillary Clinton lose the 2016 presidential election because she is a woman? This article entertains plausible alternative explanations, but I argue that sexism was a powerful influence in both that election and her loss of the Democratic nomination to Barack Obama in 2008. Enough voters in enough states expected more of women than of men, and they expected different things. Since the nineteenth century, some feminist scholars and activists have reinforced asymmetrical gendered expectations by emphasizing gender differences. Their actions served valid purposes at the time, but their legacy has encouraged antifeminist backlash.