Watch Out! This Word Is Loaded And Women Say It’s Indefensible

It wasn’t the first time and it won’t be the last time someone has insulted a woman that way.

But when the word spread that Newt Gingrich, according to his mother, had called Hillary Rodham Clinton a “bitch,” it struck a raw nerve with a lot of women.

The word - blunt, vulgar, sexist, dismissive - often is used as a weapon to diminish a woman who has risen to a position of power in her field. The word hurts, but women concede those kinds of insults and labels go with the territory.

“There’s no question that when you are a strong and forceful female, some people will use anything they can to put you down,” said Marsha Murphy, who just ended four years as Jackson County (Mo.) executive. “You have to try not to let it get to you.”

Kathleen Gingrich used the word to describe the first lady during a CBS interview with Connie Chung. She said her son, the new House speaker, thought Rodham Clinton was “a bitch.”

For many women, the insult stings no less than it did 10 years ago when Barbara Bush described Geraldine Ferraro, George Bush’s opponent in the 1984 vice-presidential race, as a word that “rhymes with rich.”

Bitch is “the most hurtful” label directed at women who are viewed as aggressive in the workplace, linguist Deborah Tannen wrote in her book, “Talking 9 to 5.”

That may be because beyond its offensiveness, the word doesn’t really describe any specific behavior, said Charlene Muehlenhard, an associate professor of psychology and women’s studies at the University of Kansas.

“It’s derogatory, but it’s so vague, there’s no way to respond to it,” Muehlenhard said.

There doesn’t seem to be a comparable insult directed at powerful men. Some of the most disparaging remarks about men question their manhood when they show a lack of aggression rather than too much.

What’s not vague about being called a bitch is that it implies some inherent failing as a woman.

“It’s not just that they don’t like you or what you have done - it’s related to your gender,” said Marjorie Kaplan, superintendent of the Shawnee Mission (Kan.) School District.

Johnna Lingle, a Johnson County (Kan.) commissioner for more than 13 years, said the word is an easy shorthand some men use to express their resentment at the inroads women have made in the workplace.

“No one’s ever called me that directly to my face, but I would not doubt that I have been called that,” Lingle said. “It goes back over the years to how women are perceived. When they do a good job, people say they are acting like a man.”

Assertiveness is accepted from a man but not always from a woman, Muehlenhard said.

“There are studies that show when women and men are being equally assertive - doing exactly the same thing - women are viewed more negatively,” she said.

But Lingle, who has worked in government since 1966, says powerful women now are better accepted.

“Over the years, certain men have been very resentful of having a woman in a position of power,” Lingle said. “That’s rare anymore. I had to prove myself, do the job better and not be a ‘witch’ while I was doing it. Now it’s not just a man’s world.”