Hillary Clinton was on the Today Show yesterday morning, arguing that caucusing is especially hard for women voters in Iowa. She says women find caucusing daunting because they don't like to vote publicly, and would rather keep their decision to themselves. I could take on this statement for being decidedly unfeminist, but more importantly, this claim is pretty far off-base factually: in 2004, women made up 54 percent of Iowa caucus-goers, and projections for tonight's caucus have put the percentage of female participants as high as 62 percent. There could be some fair points about why the caucus system is difficult for women -- you've got to get someone to watch the kids, it interferes with dinner and bedtime, etc. -- but the the hard numbers indicate that women are more inclined to come out than men. So what's Clinton trying to accomplish here? Perhaps it's a final plea to get more women out on the eve of the big event. Either that, or it's an attempt to soften the blow of a loss there by making it appear like the system is inherently stacked against women voters, and therefore against her.
--Kate Sheppard
