Megan Reed, Campus Carrier News Editor
Hillary Clinton has been coming under fire lately.
Clinton, former secretary of state, U.S. senator and first lady, is considered a potential presidential nominee for the Democrats in 2016.
However, the media’s recent focus has not been on Clinton herself but rather her husband’s affair with White House intern Monica Lewinsky which ultimately led to his 1998 impeachment and acquittal.
Sen. Rand Paul, a Republican from Kentucky, brought the issue back into the spotlight when he appeared on Meet the Press on Jan. 26 and called attention to Bill Clinton’s “predatory behavior.”
When host David Gregory asked Paul if Hillary Clinton should be judged based on her husband’s affair, Paul said he thinks “sometimes it’s hard to separate one from the other.”
Mitt Romney, 2012 Republican presidential nominee, later appeared on Meet the Press and defended Hillary Clinton, saying she should not have to explain her husband’s affair should she run for president herself.
Clinton is not the only female politician whose marital choices have been attacked recently. Democratic Texas state Sen. Wendy Davis, who is running for governor this year, was forced to explain details of her past marriage last month after the Dallas Morning News published an in-depth story claiming that she had divorced when she was 21 years old, not 19 as she had said previously. Davis says that while the divorce was not finalized until she was 21, she was separated at 19 and was her daughter’s sole caregiver at that time.
Both Clinton and Davis have devoted their lives to politics and have been successful in advocating for causes they believe in.
Clinton was the most traveled secretary of state in U.S. history and debated and met with leaders from 112 countries during her four-year tenure. As first lady of Arkansas, she worked to expand access to medical care for the state’s rural poor, and later, as first lady of the United States, she helped create the Department of Justice’s Office on Violence Against Women and became an advocate for women’s rights.
Davis gained national attention last year when she held an eleven hour filibuster to block Senate Bill 5, which restricted access to abortion in Texas. Davis’ speech, along with protests from the crowd and Sen. Leticia Van de Putte, who is now her running mate in the gubernatorial race, helped delay voting on the bill. While the bill did pass in another session, the filibuster helped Davis establish herself as an up-and-coming feminist politician. She also led a 2011 filibuster to oppose a bill which would have cut $4 billion in funding for public schools.
When a politician’s role as a wife is focused on rather than her accomplishments, ideas and policies, voters are misinformed. The choice about whether or not to leave a marriage is deeply personal. Voters will never know the details of Davis’ divorce and the Clintons’ marriage, and they are not entitled to know. The ideas and legislation politicians support is what should be voted on—not the choices they make about their relationships.
Judging women in politics based on their marital status also sends the message that no matter what they accomplish, they will always be defined by their husbands and be seen as wives first, political leaders second.
While both Clinton and Davis happen to be liberal, the struggles they face are not limited to Democrats. All women in politics, regardless of their party affiliation, work hard to be heard in a heavily male environment. They are mothers and wives, but they have their own ideas about issues and policies which should be the focus.