Did gender bias help Sanders outperform Warren with voters?

Jennifer Siebel Newsom, the wife of Gov. Gavin Newsom, tells a family story to illustrate how political gender bias begins in infancy.

The first partner had endorsed Elizabeth Warren four days before Super Tuesday so I phoned her to ask whether the Massachusetts senator had been the victim of gender bias in her quest for the Democratic presidential nomination.

After all, Warren and Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders are both liberals and had been espousing basically the same leftist policy agendas: universal government-run health care, tuition-free public universities, taxing the rich. Both had been ranting in television debates, but she wasn’t attracting many votes and he was cleaning up.

Was Warren paying a price for being a woman?

Jennifer Newsom thought so and wrote an op-ed for the San Francisco Chronicle criticizing male pundits who, she said, were encouraging Warren and Minnesota Sen. Amy Klobuchar to quit the race and “make way for a male.”

“This is a man’s world, after all,” the documentary filmmaker wrote with a dose of sarcasm. “Until we change it.”

Klobuchar stepped aside last week, one day before Super Tuesday, and endorsed former Vice President Joe Biden. Warren stepped aside Thursday and has not announced an endorsement.

When I spoke with Newsom, she was critical of “the media” — newspapers, TV and social media — for their treatment of female presidential candidates.

“Women presidential candidates are either ignored completely or they’re demeaned,” she contended. “There’s more questioning of their viability and less issues-based coverage,” she continued.

She’s right on that. There’s more “horse race” coverage of all candidates — male and female — than focus on policy positions, and that’s unfortunate.

Warren had many detailed plans for policy implementation, Newsom asserted, but the media “eviscerated her plans and didn’t even ask the same of the men.”

She said, the media “focuses on men because they’re ‘electable.’ ” That’s because people are conditioned from birth to believe female presidential candidates cannot be elected, she added.

Then she told me a story. When the Newsoms’ oldest child, daughter Montana, was born in 2009, Gavin Newsom was San Francisco mayor and the infant “received many comments on her looks and lots of pink presents,” Jennifer Newsom said.

Two years later, when Gavin Newsom was lieutenant governor, son Hunter was born.

“Hunter received fewer comments on his appearance,” Jennifer Newsom recalled, “but he received silver cups displaying the White House insignia,” a letter from President Obama and the first lady, “and, if the messaging wasn’t clear enough, he also received a blue T-shirt that said, ‘Future President.’ ”

Two years later, daughter Brooklynn was born. Newsom said, “Brooklynn has yet to receive a ‘Madame President’ Tshirt or any political paraphernalia from someone in formal leadership suggesting that she, too, like her older brother could be president . ... When Dutch was born [in 2016] he received multiple letters from political leaders and even a former president . ...

“The message is clear: From the earliest of ages, we condition our boys and men to see that they are our natural born leaders. And we do not do the same for women. This has profound consequences for the way the media and our culture treat female candidates and ultimately contributes to the underrepresentation of women in positions of power and influence.”

I called to ask some academics and political pros.

“I don’t think the Democratic primary electorate is sexist,” said Bob Shrum, director of the Center for the Political Future at USC. “Women constitute a pretty substantial majority of Democratic voters and they did not rally to Warren and Klobuchar.” But Shrum added: “No question that in the general election there is a real element of bias and barriers for women.”

Jane Junn, a political science and gender studies professor at USC, said the office at stake affects bias. “School board is no problem,” she said. “But with the presidency, women might have a problem.”

Does she think Warren was hurt by her gender? “Yes, I do.”

Sacramento State political science professor Kimberly Nalder noted that in parliamentary systems, women are chosen to lead a nation by their colleagues, who know them best. In the U.S., a greater role is assigned to voters.

The lesson for U.S. candidates is that there’s still gender bias out there.

Someone needs to send Brooklynn Newsom a “Madame President” T-shirt.