"For many women across the country, having gender as a top concern in a political election is a luxury."

Watch: Clinton Campaign Official Blames Loss On 'Internalized Misogyny' Of White Women: "McIntosh’s evaluation is at odds with exit surveys that reveal what was really going on in the minds of voters at the polls. 60% of voters said the country was “seriously on the wrong track.” Roughly the same amount said the economy wasn’t working for them. Given those numbers, and Hillary Clinton’s policies – which many voters acknowledged would bring “more of the same” – is it really so inconceivable that the Democratic candidate lost? Do we need to resort to theories like the “internalized misogyny” of white women to explain that loss?

Could it be that DNC staff are right with their declaration that Hillary Clinton’s arrogance is what cost her the election? The Democratic candidate and her campaign team have been reaching left, right and center for someone to blame for the election result. Just last weekend, they blamed FBI director James Comey. Clinton has yet to acknowledge that her campaign team failed to get out in key areas and instead relied on a piece of analytics software called ‘Ada.’ Even President Obama hinted at the ineffectiveness of that plan when he, at a presser, said, “I won Iowa not because the demographics dictated that I would win Iowa, it was because I spent 87 days going to every small town, and fair, and fish fry, and VFW hall.”"

Why Hillary Clinton Couldn't Win Over Female Voters | Vanity Fair: "...perhaps the largest miscalculation was notion that Americans, and American women, in particular, would vote based on gender. What has become clear in the election's immediate aftermath is just how little a factor that was in deciding this election, and how wrong a subset of the population was about its significance...

Overall, the majority of women voted in favor of Clinton. But her support was largely bolstered by minority women, with 94 percent of black female voters throwing their support behind her and 68 percent of Latino women doing the same, according to exit polls. Clinton, rather surprisingly, or so it seemed, lost with white women—53 percent of whom cast their ballots for Donald Trump. The number was much higher, at 62 percent, for non-college educated women. But even educated women white voters just barely leaned toward Clinton; 51 percent of white women with college degrees voted for her, meaning that 45 percent of them did vote for Trump. What mattered most to voters, exit surveys indicated, was the economy, and, to borrow Trump’s words, "draining the swamp" in Washington. Four in 10 voters attested that they were in search of change, and three in five said the country was seriously on the wrong track. About the same proportion of people felt the economy wasn’t working for them, and two-thirds indicated that their financial situation was either the same or worse than it was when President Obama started his second term four years go...

Gender is useful and potent indicator, but it can also be an obfuscating one. And while America may be in the throws of various, lingering culture wars, it is in the maw of a far more terrifying battle. Since the late 70s, the U.S. economy has fundamentally shifted from a largely manufacturing focus to one based on services. The rise of globalization and technology have exported jobs or rendered them fit for a machine or software program. And the inexorable decline of the labor movement has made workers far more vulnerable than ever. In fact, in some ways, gender was always a misleading prism in which to lose this election. And if the exit polling is correct, that had a far greater impact on women voters than seeing one of their own in the White House...

It's easy to cast blame on these white women who went for Trump, and there’s been no shortage of that over the past 24 hours. “What leads a woman to vote for a man who has made it very clear that he believes she is subhuman? Self-loathing. Hypocrisy. And, of course, a racist view of the world that privileges white supremacy over every other issue,” L.V. Anderson wrote for Slate. “A majority of white women, faced with the choice between the first female president and a vial of weaponized testosterone, said, ‘I’ll take Option B. I just don’t like her.’ Hope you got your sticker, ladies. Way to lean out,” comedian Samantha Bee told her audience. 

It is not hard to imagine why Anderson and Bee and any number of women could feel let down, disappointed, perplexed, frustrated, angry at their fellow women. It is just as simple to see how those who are criticizing female Trump voters don’t fully get at the heart of what the “others” feel. For many women across the country, having gender as a top concern in a political election is a luxury. That’s not to say having a female president isn’t important to them, or that a woman’s fundamental rights aren’t of concern. But they feel there are other factors that affect their families more, on a day-to-day basis, and ultimately, that is what they cast their vote for. Particularly, for non-college educated women, who stay at home or make minimum wage or find themselves more dependent on men, there is was even less importance placed on gender...

The reality for most Americans is that gender is secondary to financial stability, to finding an economy that works for them, and a tomorrow that’s a little less hard than today."