Former first lady and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton complained that the media has a “double standard” for women, on the one hand running them through the mill of public service and on the other, pressing them to bounce back in the face of all types of adversity.
She said, while serving as a panelist for the Women in the World Summit in New York: “There is a double standard, obviously. We have all experienced it or at the very least seen it. … The double standard is alive and well, and I think in many respects, the media is the principal propagator of its persistence,” Politico reported.
She also said that the media should take steps to curtail its bias against women, Newsmax reported.
“You have to play both an outside and inside game,” Mrs. Clinton said, about how women should broach dual roles in public and private life, ABC News reported. “On the outside, you have to find ways to raise these issues that are truly rooted in sexism or in old-fashioned irrelevant expectations about women’s lives, not just to score a point but to change a mind.”
She also counseled women who want to serve in the public policy arena to “grow a skin as thick as the hide of a rhinoceros. You should take criticism seriously. Because you might learn something, but you can’t let it crush you … and that takes a sense of humor about yourself and others.”
Mrs. Clinton appeared on the panel with International Monetary Fund Managing Director Christine Lagardo.
• Cheryl K. Chumley can be reached at cchumley@washingtontimes.com.
Please read our comment policy before commenting.