There has been a lot of talk lately whether or not the media has been more critical of Hillary Clinton than they are of Barack Obama. Politics aside, this feels like an obvious example of bias against women. I do feel that there is an expectation that women need to be perfect.

There is an expectation that women have to meet higher standards than their male counterparts in many professions. Numerous female surgeons I know who are currently in their 50’s or 60’s tell me that when they were in training, and it was still unusual for a woman to go into surgery (rather than traditional female territory such as pediatrics), they were subjected to far harsher judgments from their (male) supervisors so in effect they had to be better surgeons to make the grade. Which leads to the obvious conclusion that if you are looking for a really good surgeon, look for an experienced female one!

Women are also far more harshly judged in terms of their appearance. When was the last time you read about the weight of a man? I remember years ago reading that Roseanne Barr and Jack Nicholson actually had the same BMI. But if you would ask anyone on the street to describe them both, you would probably hear the word “fat” when describing her but not when describing him. 

Why are women expected to meet so many more criteria of perfection than men? A study published about 10 years ago noted that men tend to experience stress on a daily basis about three things (immediate family, money, job) while women tend to be stressed on a daily basis about 12 things (those three, plus so much more-the house, the extended family, her weight, the entire family’s social life, pets, etc). If you go into the home of any couple, the state of that home is going to be attributed to the woman of the house, not the man. Which would suggest that men are only judged on three things while women are judged on 12. I would guess that the average woman would be far more relaxed if they had to meet perfectionistic criteria on only three things. Or if we judged men for more. Let’s clamor for the weight or shirt size of every man we read about!

How can we change the media, and in fact society, to judge women on fewer aspects of their lives? If an overweight actor’s weight is invisible, why can’t Hillary dress or mother or laugh in a way that is invisible as well?