... “We have to grapple with the fact that some people think a woman can’t win … I have heard about it from our own people [and] I’ve noticed it,” Klobuchar told POLITICO in an interview. The Minnesota Democrat called it “a real barrier” that’s only grown more obvious as the primary has ground on. It has prompted her to speak more openly about sexism, she said, “especially because I’ve seen my very qualified sisters have to leave the race — that was really, for me, a turning point.”

But Klobuchar and Warren have addressed sexism is markedly different ways. In debates and on the campaign trail, Klobuchar for months has addressed it head on. Warren, by contrast, has mostly been mute on the subject — until Tuesday night’s debate.

Both strategies contain risks and highlight the headwinds all female candidates face. Claiming sexism or addressing it publicly can obscure a candidate’s broader message and quickly earn accusations of playing the so-called “gender card,” according to aides and allies to both candidates and officials from past presidential campaigns of women candidates. But ignoring it or brushing it off can let damaging gendered narratives take root and spread, they said.
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Warren, who’s filtered her campaign message largely through a class-based lens, has declined to call out sexism when pressed by reporters, though her campaign and its surrogates have addressed it more directly. When prodded by a reporter last fall over Biden casting her as “angry” and “condescending,” and whether he would have made those comments about man, Warren shot back: “Why don’t you ask him that?” And unlike many of the men in the race, Warren has been more reluctant to go negative against opponents .
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At Kirsten Gillibrand’s first news conference as a presidential candidate, she was asked about her likability. During a Fox News town hall, she was chastised for being impolite. And last spring, Harris, who faced the challenge of running as a black woman, had to defuse rumors that she’d become Biden’s running mate. A whisper campaign about the No. 2 role circled around Harris even though she was running for the top job herself, shaping perceptions of her candidacy.
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