After former President Donald Trump delivered a haughty and visibly emotional debate performance on Tuesday night, many viewers took to the internet with the same joke: “Perhaps men are too emotional to be president.”
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| Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump and Democratic presidential nominee Kamala Harris debate Tuesday night at The National Constitution Center in Philadelphia. Trump's emotional delivery was in contrast to Harris' calmer demeanor. via GETTY IMAGES |
For years, female candidates have faced criticism for being deemed emotionally unstable — hysterical, even — especially during their menstrual cycle. Given how the debate unfolded, the joke felt too fitting: Vice President Kamala Harris, the sole woman on stage, maintained a demeanor that was cool, calm, and collected, though she was characteristically prone to laughing.
Expertly provoked by Harris — a single remark about Trump’s small crowd sizes was enough to set him off — Trump glared at the camera throughout the night. His expression was a mix of clenched jaw and narrowed eyes in a perpetual scowl.
These eyes rarely met his Democratic rival, who seized the split-screen opportunity, smirking and shaking her head while Trump rambled on about immigrants eating cats and his admiration for Hungary’s authoritarian leader, Viktor Orbán.
Clearly rattled, Trump avoided using Harris’s first name, which he often mispronounces, opting instead for “she.”
He eventually resorted to schoolyard gossip, claiming that even President Joe Biden disliked Harris. “I’ll give you a little secret. He hates her. He can’t stand her.”
New York Times columnist Frank Bruni described Trump as “livid” on stage, while The Independent labeled him “unhinged.” Regardless of the term used, the essence was clear: Trump was excessively emotional on the Philadelphia debate stage — a label long attached to women in politics. This stereotype has historically been used against women voting and serving on juries.
Barbara A. Perry, a presidential studies professor at the University of Virginia’s Miller Center of Public Affairs, commented, “The performance by the two candidates last night should, but probably won’t, dispel the myth that all men are rational and all women are emotional.”
A Georgetown University study from 2019 revealed that 13% of respondents still doubted women’s emotional suitability for political office, which negatively impacts their chances of winning. Labeling women as “emotional” often undermines their credibility.
Despite his emotional outbursts — reminiscent of his tantrums during his 2016 debates with Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton — Trump’s credibility has remained intact among his base.
“What we saw again last night was that Trump didn’t maintain a calm demeanor and avoid the verbal traps Vice President Harris set for him,” Perry told HuffPost. “Harris, however, maintained her prosecutorial demeanor, providing reasoned and logical responses to his statements.”
When necessary, she raised her voice to express indignation or offense related to her gender, Perry noted. “She also used her facial expressions of disbelief, bemusement, shock, and dismissiveness to great effect. Meanwhile, we saw glaring, unhinged anger and foolish grinning from him.”
Throughout the evening, Trump embodied every stereotype about female political leaders being unable to keep calm and lead effectively.
Often, such assertions invoke menstruation. “A woman is too hormonal to be president,” the jokes go. “Imagine if she’s on her period and starts a war because she’s in a bad mood!” (Kudos to all the women who’ve managed their work during their periods without any incident.)
In 1970, feminists demanded Edgar Berman, a physician and friend of former Vice President Hubert Humphrey, resign from the Democratic Party’s platform committee after he argued that women could never be effective presidents due to menstrual cycle changes.
Berman questioned, “Suppose we had a menopausal woman President who had to make the decision of the Bay of Pigs or the Russian contretemps with Cuba?” He suggested a female president might be “subject to the curious mental aberrations of that age group.”
The assertion was so outrageous that even Berman’s wife criticized him. When asked about his statements, she reportedly said, “If he really said that, I would disagree with him.”
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| Rep. Pat Schroeder tears up and leans on her husband's shoulder after announcing she will not run for president in 1988. via GETTY IMAGES |
Yet, the stereotype persisted. In 2016, comedian Amy Schumer perpetuated the same outdated notion about periods and mood swings in a sketch called “Madame President” from her show “Inside Amy Schumer.” In it, the president pauses a meeting to change her tampon and loses her composure when a diplomat takes her last piece of chocolate.
Trump himself used such “she must be on her period” criticism against Megyn Kelly in 2015 after Kelly moderated a GOP debate he deemed unfair: “She gets out and starts asking me all sorts of ridiculous questions,” Trump told CNN at the time. “You could see there was blood coming out of her eyes, blood coming out of her wherever.”
The trope of women’s heightened emotionality stems from Greek-influenced classical education; Aristotle, Plato, and Hippocrates all suggested women were inferior due to their intense emotions, with Hippocrates arguing that women’s “wandering wombs” drove them to madness.
The history of women in the U.S. is filled with critiques of women as too emotional and therefore incapable of public service, noted Julie Gallagher, a history professor at Penn State University and author of “Black Women and Politics in New York City.”
Aware of how they will be scrutinized for showing emotions, women in politics have often worked to suppress their feelings, even in situations that warrant them.
In 1987, Rep. Pat Schroeder (D-Colo.) cried while announcing she would no longer seek the Democratic presidential nomination. She was harshly criticized, and the incident was seen as proof that women are too emotional for politics.
“I choked for a few minutes and shed a few tears. And, oh, my goodness, the end of the world happened,” Schroeder told NPR in 2016. “I mean, people were like, that’s it. That’s it. We can never have women. They’re just so emotional.” (Schroeder, who passed away last year, mentioned that she tracked instances when men in politics or sports cried in public without causing headlines.)
In politics — and beyond — Black women face the “hysterical woman” label even more frequently, Gallagher said.
“The ‘angry Black woman’ trope has been used to undermine, dismiss, and silence Black women,” she said. (Harris has faced similar “angry woman” attacks; in 2017, former Trump campaign adviser Jason Miller labeled Harris “hysterical” during her questioning of then-Attorney General Jeff Sessions.)
Shirley Chisholm, the first African American woman to seek a major party nomination for U.S. president, often stated that sexism impeded her campaign more than racism. “The emotional, sexual and psychological stereotyping of females begins when the doctor says, ‘It’s a girl,’” she famously said.
Considering this history, Gallagher found it ironic that Trump “looked, at times, like he might explode,” while Harris — the Black woman on stage — exuded calm and confidence.
“By maintaining her presidential and commanding presence, even as Trump lied and insulted her, she challenged the ‘angry Black woman’ stereotype without uttering a word or taking any bait Trump threw,” Gallagher said.
What viewers witnessed on Tuesday night at the ABC News event was a man who frequently boasts of his power and masculinity being overwhelmed by hurt feelings, said Ann F. Lewis, a former communications director for President Bill Clinton. Meanwhile, the woman on stage remained focused on her strategy and message.
“I have worked with numerous women candidates preparing for debates, always emphasizing the importance of showing responsible, compassionate leadership,” Lewis said. “If I do it again, I will use VP Harris’ example from last night as a master class.”
And if Lewis is asked about the risks of overly emotional men running for office? She said she’d point to a YouTube clip of Trump’s performance from Tuesday night.
“Sorry to ask anyone to watch him again,” she joked.
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