To be clear, this isn’t the main thing supporters of Elizabeth Warren need to be worried about. However, we should be aware of the “special” obstacles faced by women candidates–and maybe especially women candidates in Massachusetts, where we’ve never had a woman Senator. From Robert Kuttner/Huffington Post:
Warren is in the classic dilemma of a female candidate. If she tries to keep the focus on the issues, as she did in the first debate, she runs the risk of failing to respond to Brown’s charges and looking weak.
If she hits back, she risks looking “strident,” (a charge seldom applied to male candidates.) And if she says “Shame on you, Senator” for his more outrageous lies, she risks playing into the “school-marm” stereotype.
For more reading/analysis on women in politics, see the “Name It Change It” campaign :
Needham for Elizabeth 