Eric Boehlert: Are Democratic women bad bosses? The press keeps pushing sexist double standard

https://pressrun.media/p/are-democratic-women-bad-bosses-the

Are Democratic women bad bosses? The press keeps pushing sexist double standard
So much "dysfunction"
Eric Boehlert
1 hr ago


Five years after the press helped hand Trump the White House by holding the first woman nominee to an entirely different standard, we see constant reminders that women, and particularly Democratic ones, get singled out for scrutiny.

Vice President Kamala Harris oversees an unhappy office of staffers! Interns at Sen. Kyrsten Sinema’s office are discontented! Amy Klobuchar (D-MN) sometimes verbally undressed staffers who don’t meet her work standards!

The press loves to feature women when compiling lists of Beltway Bad Bosses. Yet hard-charging men in politics earn points for behaving exactly how the women do when they get singled out for running “dysfunctional” operations.

snip//

If former staffers want to go on the record and complain that a presidential candidate was a bad boss, that’s a legitimate news story. But think of how many hundreds of men have run for president in the modern American era, and how the press has virtually never cared if their staffers were happy, or if their offices ran on affirming vibes.

Over the years, did you ever read long Times articles headlined, “How Ted Cruz Treats His Staff,” “How Bernie Sanders Treats His Staff,” “How Marco Rubio Treats His Staff,” “How John Edwards Treats His Staff”?

Me neither. That seems only to be a news story if the boss is a woman, and a Democratic woman.

Just ask Sen. Kyrsten Sinema (D-AZ), who was the subject of a recent 2,000-word Business Insider piece about what a bad boss she is. Specifically, the article hyped the claim that a former Sinema intern was sometimes reprimanded when she went off script while fielding calls from constituents. That was the lead anecdote the outlet used to highlight turmoil within the office of a Democratic woman.

Maybe it’s time for the media to turn the workplace spotlight on male Beltway bosses.