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Editor’s note: This commentary is by Brandon Batham, of Barre, who is a member of the Barre City Council, the chair of the Barre City Democratic Committee, and the political director of the Vermont Democratic Party.

It was a freezing, windy early evening the day before Town Meeting Day. I stood in front of the Youth Triumphant statue in downtown Barre with Sue Higby, who was running to be Barre City’s first woman mayor, and several volunteers who came to participate in a “honk and wave” in support of her candidacy. Many cars passed by without a second glance, and quite a few honked their horns to show support for Sue’s candidacy. Early on in the two hours we stood in front of Youth Triumphant, a car with two men in their mid-40s drove by, and the man in the passenger seat rolled down his window, grabbed the roof of the car to hoist his upper body out of the vehicle, and shouted, “She’s a lesbian!”

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Sue looked at me, shocked, and all I could do was tell her to shake it off. This wasn’t the first time we experienced sexism during her campaign — in an editorial endorsing her opponent, the Times Argus described her as “prickly and elitist.” A friend and neighbor pulled me aside a week before to ask if I would pass on their encouragement that Sue “smile more.” I won’t even attempt to mention how many times I saw gendered derogatory terms used to describe Sue on social media or in comments sections on the internet.

This also wasn’t the first time I’d seen an exceptionally qualified, passionate woman running for office be mercilessly and undeservedly attacked for their gender. While working on Senate Majority Leader Becca Balint’s first campaign in 2014, Becca received an anonymous postcard encouraging her to “stay home and take care of your children” instead of running for the Vermont Senate. Sue Minter’s 2016 campaign for governor faced ridiculous levels of sexism, from nasty, wild rumors, to remarks made by members of the Vermont media that carried the unmistakable undertone of gender bias.

As proud as we are to point out our progressive achievements, Vermont isn’t immune to sexism in politics. While we cheer ourselves on for having one of the highest number of women in our state Legislature — and that many women serve in legislative leadership — we only have one woman currently serving in statewide elected office, and we’ve only elected one woman to serve as governor in our close to 250-year history. News out of Mississippi last week made it official: Vermont will now be the last state in the nation to send a woman to Congress.

Contrary to what is said by those who push back against the need to elect more women to office, the underlying issue isn’t about “electing the most qualified person.” As someone who has worked primarily for female candidates, I can say without a shadow of doubt that there are and have been many qualified women who run for public office, particularly here in Vermont. There are so many more who are exceptionally qualified women who choose not to run for office because they either don’t consider themselves to be qualified enough, or because they’ve seen other women try and fail only to be treated even worse as losers than they were as candidates.

The root of the issue is that we have very different standards for female candidates. They have to be calm and poised, but personable and energetic; smart, but not elitist; passionate, but never angry. We’re thrilled whenever Sen. Bernie Sanders rails against corporations and billionaires, and we share his righteous anger. If a woman in public office attempts to show even a fraction of that frustration, she’s labeled as “shrill,” “crazy,” or simply “a bitch.” If a woman attempts to address these different standards, she’s seen as “whiny” and “playing the gender card.”

As men in or running for public office, we need to do our part to address this issue head-on. Male candidates and activists must be willing to push back against the media or even their own supporters when they witness sexism or different standards at play. In an ideal world, if a qualified woman with the same or similar views for public office steps up to run, other potential male candidates should take the opportunity to display their commitment to this issue and step aside to show support for that woman — or, better yet, encourage that woman to run in the first place!

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As voters, we need to understand that electing more women to public office isn’t “identity politics”; it’s an attempt to make our government more reflective of all the people it serves. While we can all agree that we shouldn’t abandon our commitment to electing qualified, principled candidates whom we agree with, we must also be willing to consider the benefit of having diverse representation at all levels of government. We must also be willing to challenge the frame in which a female candidate is presented to us by the press. Even the most progressive, forward-thinking journalists and reporters can unknowingly contribute to the narrative that far too many women running for public office are forced into.

It would be unwise to accept any excuse for the fact that we elect so few women to public office here in Vermont. There is no excuse. We have to be better, and we have to be willing to make this issue a priority. Vermont’s led on issues like this before — let’s make sure we don’t fall behind Mississippi (or any other state) for ensuring the best, most true representation of ourselves in government ever again.