Hillary Rodham Clinton, the Race Question, and the “Masculine Mystique”

This chapter explores the intricate connections between the politics of gender, race, and class in Clinton's presidential bid. Leading nineteenth-century feminists such as Angelina Grimké, the daughter of South Carolina slaveholders who became one of the most popular public speakers in the antebellum North, championed both antiracism and antisexism, refusing to privilege the freedom of one group at the expense of another. This chapter argues that in 2008, Clinton made a different choice. In her determination to pass the “masculinity test” for commander in chief, Clinton molded herself into the candidate for “hard-working Americans, white Americans,” failing the “race test” and setting back the cause of unity and justice for all Americans.