83% of Dem women: Gender not important in picking nominee. 14% say it is

[Perrenial Voter]

3. Unfortunately, gender may be more important for men. In the past,

polls have shown men reluctant to elect a female president because of the notion that the Commander in Chief needs to be "tough" (i.e., male). It's all about performance, of course, not innate qualities. Remember how G H W Bush had to tweak his campaign rhetoric to show he had sufficient testosterone?

At a gut level, I feel that Kamala Harris is the only female candidate who can win because she projects "toughness" in a way that the other candidates do not. I like Warren's record and policies better, but every once in a while she does this thing where she talks like a little girl and I think this will doom her as a candidate. Again, performance. She's one of the smartest candidates out there. Biden has historically been able to speak to white working class men better than most contemporary Democrats and can act tough, but neither Sanders nor O'Rourke are very strong in this area. But they benefit do benefit from being male and all the assumptions that go with that.