Sheryl Gay Stolberg on Why Female Politicians Avoid Sex
Scandals. Following the latest sex scandal involving Anthony
Weiner, Stolberg writes that male political sex scandals "would
be easy to file this under the category of 'men behaving badly,'
to dismiss it as a testosterone-induced, hard-wired connection
between sex and power." Likewise, "some might conclude that busy
working women don’t have time to cheat." But she argues that the
underlying reason women avoid sex scandals is that there is a
"substantial gender gap in the way women and men approach
running for office." In short, "women run for office to do
something, and men run for office to be somebody,” said Debbie
Walsh, director of the Center for American Women and Politics at
Rutgers University. As women "have different reasons for
running, are more reluctant to do so," they "are acutely aware
of the scrutiny they draw." Because they are under greater
scrutiny,  "women politicians are punished more harshly than men
for misbehavior." Overall, the res