From the NYTimes last week, on the Clinton presidential campaign and how Hillary Rodham Clinton is negotiating the complicated terrain of being the first woman in serious contention for the presidency. Interestingly enough, in the article, Clinton is referred to by the Times as being a "Nurturing Warrior," negotiating how to present herself as both maternal/nurturing/accessible and tough-minded at the same time.
"She is, in this latest unveiling, the Nurturing Warrior. She displays a cozy acquaintance ('Let’s chat') and leaderly confidence ('I’m in it to win it'). She is a tea-sipping girlfriend who vows to 'deck' anyone who attacks her; a giggly mom who invokes old Girl Scout songs and refuses to apologize for voting for the Iraq War Resolution in 2002. Her aim, of course, is to show that she is tough enough to lead Americans in wartime but tender enough to understand their burdens. ..."
"But the senator is trying hard. In appearances in Washington and around the country, Mrs. Clinton — Version 08, Nurturing Warrior, Presidential Candidate Model — is speaking more freely of her gender than she has in years. Her campaign knows that Democratic women are her most loyal supporters. Ann Lewis, a senior campaign aide, points out that women made up 54 percent of the electorate in 2004; Mrs. Clinton garnered 73 percent of female voters in her re-election campaign last year, compared with 61 percent of male voters, according to exit polls.'"
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