Why Do Some Men Hate Hillary Clinton?

Hillary’s unpopularity with the non-college white male demographic is way above any other polling segment.   In my opinion this distortion in pattern must be attributable to something other than differences in political ideology.  Non-college and or blue collar white men appear to be uncomfortable with the notion of a female president that has little to do with the individual candidate but more to do with their perception of gender roles.  It is a complex issue and deserves explanation.  The question is, why do non-college white males feel such hostility towards a prominent female politician?

There is no question that non-college educated men in a relatively wealthy country have had difficulty coping with the enormous changes in the labor market and the home over the past half-century. As technology and trade have devalued brawn, less-educated men have struggled to find a role in the workplace. Women, on the other hand, are surging into expanding sectors such as health care, education and the law aided by their advanced and targeted schooling. As education has become more important, boys have also fallen behind girls in school. Men who lose jobs in manufacturing often never work again at jobs with equivalent wages. Men without work may find it hard to attract a permanent mate. The result, for low-skilled men, is a poisonous combination of no job or under employment, no family and few prospects.  The growing equality of the sexes is one of the biggest achievements of the post-war era: people, especially women, have greater opportunities than ever before to achieve their ambitions regardless of their gender. But some men have been unable to cope with this new world.

However there is more going on than economic displacement.  A female host on Fox News said, ” the wussification of America. Men have been emasculated, they have been feminized by the left that has pushed this on a culture. And they do see Donald Trump as somebody who speaks for them.”  Does this quote provide an additional clue?   Men in more traditionally male occupations are more likely to identify as completely masculine with accompanying strong beliefs in stereotypical gender roles.  They work alongside mostly other men and see their understanding of gender being attacked by militant feminists.  Therefore,  an outspoken tough female politician is perceived as being contrary to their belief about a women’s role and her public behavior.  A quote attributed to Donald Trump sheds even more light on the issue.

“OK often, I will tell friends whose wives are constantly nagging them about this or that that they’re better off leaving and cutting their losses, I’m not a great believer in always trying to work things out, because it just doesn’t happen that way. For a man to be successful he needs support at home, just like my father had from my mother, not someone who is always griping and bitching. When a man has to endure a woman who is not supportive and complains constantly about his not being home enough or not being attentive enough, he will not be very successful unless he is able to cut the cord.”

Key words from Trump – support at home, someone who is griping and bitching.   His take away, which seems to resonate with his highly affiliated non- college men, is that women should stay at home to support their man and being outspoken politically is merely griping and bitching.

It becomes apparent that the glass ceiling remains intact among non-college white men and for a female politician to succeed she must find a way to empathize with the economic condition of men whose jobs have been replaced by technology and outsourcing. We need to propose programs that will help these men retrain and recoup a middle class lifestyle.   Hopefully, when these men feel that they are no longer discarded by society they very well might be more accepting of gender equality and a female president.

11 thoughts on “Why Do Some Men Hate Hillary Clinton?”

  1. Agree with overall perception. When the overdue rise of women is seen as a zero-sum game, friction ensues – and not just in non-college families.

    At same time, there are the particulars of any candidate, whether Trump’s narcissism or Hillary’s centrism. They both have their braying campaign voices going now – but, to come full circle to your perception, her’s is criticized far more than his. Same with complex marital histories.

  2. Sorry, I disagree with your premise. It is YOU who is conflating Candidate Hillary’s record unpopularity with non-college white males with your straw man argument that this demographic is uncomfortable with strong female politicians generally. My riposte? Condoleeza Rice. How did THAT particular strong female politician resonate among the target demographic? Same question about Margaret Thatcher. No, mi amigo, the real reason that non-college white men dislike She Who Must Not Be Named is that she wholeheartedly supports continued unchecked immigration flows that will inevitable put downward pressure on their earnings while she simultaneously tries to destroy entire industries that employ their non-college educated muscles: coal mining, oil extraction, to name a few.

    As for writing style, the second and fourth sentences are bald assertions never supported by data or otherwise developed in the article.

    1. I believe you missed the point of the article. It is not an endorsement of Hillary. I attempted to draw attention to the fact that non college educated white men dislike Hillary more than any other segment of the population and what is that about. Your response to loss of jobs is totally unsupported by the data. Manufacturing job loss has been going on for a long time and his largely, not entirely, due to technology. Our paralyzed congress has refused to fund programs to help re-train those who have been displaced by technology and also to invest in repairing our crumbling infrastructure which would employ many of the displaced workers.

    2. Two points not covered in my last reply to your comment. Condoleeza Rice was not elected. She was appointed so we do not know how she would have fared as a candidate among the cohort in question. Secondly, Thatcher was soundly criticized by women in Britain for only appointing males to prominent positions. She was quoted as saying most women are not ready for these jobs. She was frankly reinforcing the notion that women are not ready for leadership even though she was a female Prime Minister.

  3. Your comments ring true to me … sadly not likely going to change anytime soon. I sense Obama is still not recognized or valued as one of the US Presidents as his predecessors, and not just because of his policies. This great country is changing, but not all its citizens. I’d say the vast majority accept blacks as free men and women should have the right to vote, but it has taken generations, not decades. Technology has indeed evolved faster than humans: The iPhone 7 is due out soon, but humans are lagging behind.

  4. Inspiring !
    Rich you are a very bright man … surprised you would have put forth views that belie your obvious intellect and otherwise egalitarian nature?? Rich I was surprised at the ‘elitist’, false , implied narrative that knuckle scraping poorly educated ,white ,working class, chauvinist bigots don’t accept women in advanced societal positions as the reason why they do not accept Hillary. Working class folk of all types ,colors and political persuasion are really great at sniffing out bullshit ,disingenuousness and instinctively distrust a deleterious person. Don’t complicate things…they most likely perceive her true nature and simply don’t buy what she is offering. She and what she offers do not pass the sniff test

    1. I am sorry you missed the point of the blog. I was attempting to look at the degree of antipathy towards Hillary by this particular segment of the population. The dislike of Hillary is far greater in this group than any other polling cohort. Following your reasoning, non college educated white men are better able to discern the legitimacy of a candidate than anybody else. Again I am not arguing that disliking Hillary is solely based on gender but that it is a bigger factor among non-college white men than any other group.

  5. Rich, I do not believe I missed the point of the post at all. It is the conclusion you reach that I dispute.’ White working class non college educated males dislike Hillary because of a perceived gender role maladjustment’ ??? At very least that is a reach.
    I did as you suggested and I shared your comments ( blog and response ) with three other people one , a female with her MSW and makes her living as a practicing counselor , another woman who is an adjunct professor in composition at a community college. The third is a male co-worker who holds an elected position in local government. All concurred with both my observations of your blog and my comments .

  6. I do not routinely delete comments that do not support my blog. I deleted yours because it was redundant to the previous comment which was approved and the idea of a survey was not in my opinion a relevant thing to share. The problem with the survey is that it would be very difficult to target the audience. Union members might only sample a small portion of the cohort we are discussing. Union membership is way down and many of the displaced factory workers were not members of a union.
    Again my blog was not intended to be pro Hillary or discounting why folks don’t like her. The intent was to try to understand why white, non-college men dislike her to the extent that they do which is way beyond other cohorts.

  7. My goodness Rich ! Enough with the notion that I missed your point. You were not real subtle in making it. Quite frankly it was pretty smug and insulting to an entire strata of society and I am not the only person who feels that way. Of particular interest is that two M3 members called me by phone ( after I initially responded to your blog ) and asked if I had read your recent post To which I replied ‘ I have and I replied’.. Both men were more than just a little put off by the assertion that because white working class males not only do not support Hillary but hate her is due to some character flaw on their part ??
    Nobody I shared your blog with and shared my response to your blog with felt that I had missed your point in any way .
    As to the lack of worth in a survey , do you say that because you fear the result may support the fact that it is the character of Hillary ( her dishonesty ) that they reject ? If 500 people replied that would equal the # of respondents to many of the poles we see in Real Clear Politics. Reaching them is no big trick either you simply make contact through the executive boards of the respective locals. At this point it’s all fairly moot. No time left between now and the election to obtain a response that would support either position … perhaps in January.
    In the interim , please don’t kid the kidder. Just call it straight you are a Hillary supporter . Remember we go back a fair amount of time. You once said very matter of factly that your political position was ‘way farther to the left’ than Bill Clinton ever was. You are a Hillary supporter ( especially since Bernie drove her and the Democratic Party so very far to the left ) a fact about you that I consider to be more of an affliction but nevertheless I respect
    In contrast I am a Trump Supporter and the reason for that is because he is not Hillary ! I am white , College educated and the company I work for is owned by a woman and my supervisor for the last ten years was a woman ( unfortunately she was terminated ). The only notable conflicts I had in the workplace were with males ( 2 in 35 years ) . Let’s pick this up again after the new year . Right now I have to make money . Might well be my last opportunity to do so if your candidate is elected, So long for now my far left friend . and I mean that despite your very mistaken political orientation you are still a man I consider to be a friend .

    1. You insist that you didn’t miss my point but your reply suggest that you did. I did not say that working class men who hate Hillary do so as a character flaw. My point, which has been echoed by many respectable journalists, is that non-college educated white men might have more of a problem with a female president because of their cultural and work related environments. In addition I did not suggest that college educated white men love Hillary only that there is a big gap between these two groups in their feelings about Hillary and that one factor – not the whole ball of wax – might be a problem with viewing a women in a leadership position. You do not offer any other reason to explain the differences between these two groups of men. What is your explanation?

      I am a Hillary supporter but I deliberately did not trash Trump or try to be political in my blog, My purpose was to look at a particular phenomenon that was reported in the poles and write about it from a masculinity perspective

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