Page 4 - ARUBA TODAY

A4 U.S. NEWS
Saturday 21 december 2019
Female candidates asked for

forgiveness. Men, not so much

By TAMARA LUSH stage, and yet, they still feel tuned, and want to make
Associated Press the need to back off be- sure conversations run
In the final question of Thurs- cause they fear they have smoothly.
day's Democratic presi- maybe been too direct, In a debate setting, "to
dential debate, the seven too blunt, too passionate," apologize for that kind of
candidates were asked said Sally Helgesen, an au- behavior is really interest-
whether they would rather thor, speaker and women's ing. It served to maintain
give a gift to someone on leadership coach. the image of them being
the stage. Or, they could There's still a double stan- feminine, it's conforming to
Democratic presidential candidate Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D- ask for forgiveness. dard between when it those types of gender roles
Mass., speaks during a Democratic presidential primary debate Their responses were the comes to communication expected of women."
Thursday, Dec. 19, 2019, in Los Angeles.
Associated Press stuff of linguistics and gen- and gender. Men are ex- All three experts pointed
der studies. pected to be forceful, pas- out that Secretary of State
The men — Joe Biden, Ber- sionate and bold. Women and 2016 presidential can-
nie Sanders, Andrew Yang, who choose to communi- didate Hillary Clinton was
Pete Buttigieg and Tom cate in a similar fashion are criticized and mocked dur-
Steyer — opted to give a criticized for being strident, ing her campaign for not
gift. None remarked on shrill or worse. being feminine enough.
how forcefully they tried to And yet, by asking for for- "Women tend to get social-
make a point, nor did they giveness — essentially ly punished for not being
acknowledge their anger apologizing for arguing warm," said Schumann.
or passion about the issues their points forcefully — the It was also telling,
during the two-and-a-half women candidates could Schumann said, for the
hour debate to become be seen by some voters men in Thursday's debate
the Democratic presiden- as weak or backing down. to all choose gift giving.
tial nominee. It's a predicament, linguist "Giving a gift is a warm, pro-
But the two women, Eliza- Deborah Tannen said — social behavior. You're a
beth Warren and Amy and their answers address benefactor, helping some-
Klobuchar, asked for for- one of the liabilities of be- one. You're in a more pow-
giveness. Each apologized ing a female candidate. erful role," she said. "The
for, well, debating. "Strident is a word attached benefit of the perceptions
"I know that sometimes, to women, but never at- of their warmth doesn't
um, I get really worked up, tached to men," she said, come at any cost to per-
and sometimes I get a little pointing out Klobuchar's ceptions of competence."
hot. I don't really mean to," statement about others Tannen did say that there
Warren said. getting "mad" at her. "Can was one way Klobuchar
Said Klobuchar: "I would you imagine any of those and Warren were exactly
ask for forgiveness any time guys saying that?" like the men onstage.
any of you get mad at me. Professor Karina Schumann "They went on to say how
I can be blunt." of the University of Pitts- great they were," she said.
Gender and linguists ex- burgh, who did her doc- But the two women
perts weren't surprised by toral thesis on why women couched it in an apol-
their choices. apologize more often than ogy, attributing an asking
"These women are brilliant me, said many women are of forgiveness to: "I care
and accomplished, and more sensitive to harming so much about what's
they deserve to be on that others. They're socially at- happening."q