{"id":993,"date":"2016-06-13T08:00:27","date_gmt":"2016-06-13T12:00:27","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/annelitwin.com\/?p=993"},"modified":"2016-06-13T08:00:27","modified_gmt":"2016-06-13T12:00:27","slug":"hillary-clinton-and-the-goldilocks-syndrome","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.annelitwin.com\/blog\/blog-posts\/hillary-clinton-and-the-goldilocks-syndrome\/","title":{"rendered":"Hillary Clinton and the Goldilocks Syndrome"},"content":{"rendered":"

\t\t\t\tWhy is it that when Hillary Clinton stepped down from being secretary of state in 2013, after four years in office, she was the most popular politician in the country? Her approval rating then stood at 69 percent. Yet while campaigning for president in 2016, two-thirds of the voting population said they did not trust her, though according to Nicolas Kristof<\/a> of the New York Times<\/em>, this distrust is not deserved. Sady Doyle, writing for Quartz<\/em><\/a>, suggests that \u201cpublic opinion of Clinton has followed a fixed pattern throughout her career. Her public approval plummets whenever she applies for a new position. Then it soars when she gets the job.\u201d\nThis pattern played out for Clinton when she ran for Senate and got that job, and the pattern is not specific to Clinton. Elizabeth Warren experienced the same dynamic when she ran for Senate in Massachusetts\u2014women reported being \u201cturned off by Warren\u2019s know-it-all style,\u201d but she became extremely popular once she made it to the Senate.\nLet\u2019s be clear\u2014this is a pattern that many women experience when they campaign for powerful positions, not only in politics but in organizations when women apply for promotions. Doyle states that what we are seeing is misogyny\u2014 a continual prejudice against women caught in the act of asking for power. She cites a Harvard study<\/a> that found that \u201cpower-seeking men are seen as strong and competent. Power-seeking women are greeted by both sexes with \u2018moral outrage.\u2019\u201d Clinton and other successful women are caught in double binds that are challenging and costly for them when they seek promotions.\n\u00a0<\/u>\n\n\n

Double Binds for Successful Women<\/u><\/h2>\n\n\nWhat are double binds? They are catch-22 situations that women often face in public and organizational life. In her book Executive Presence<\/em><\/a>, Sylvia Ann Hewlett cites Carolyn Buck Lee as describing double binds as the Goldilocks syndrome: \u201cYou\u2019re too this, you\u2019re too that, and you always will be because what\u2019s behind it is hidden bias.\u201d\nMy women clients and other women in the news have been told they smile too much or too little to be leaders or they talk too little or too much to make partner. Hillary Clinton, and other women leaders face a number of pernicious double binds when they apply for a promotion, which according to Hewlett include the following:\n\n\n