Skip to content
Connect
Stories

Fact checking Don Lemon: Women reach their ‘prime’ later in life, Northeastern experts say

Don Lemon’s comment that Republican presidential candidate Nikki Haley is past her prime fundamentally disregards women as professionals, according to a humanities expert at Northeastern University. Lemon, a co-host on “CNN This Morning,” also said a woman is considered to be in her prime in “her 20s, 30s and maybe her 40s.” Haley is 51.

“Why on earth would someone say 20s, 30s, 40s?” says Martha Johnson, associate professor of government in Mills College at Northeastern University and in the College of Social Sciences and Humanities. “That’s only if you are thinking of women and their appearance or their childbearing capacity, their sort of sexiness.” Johnson says that women actually reach their stride in politics and in the corporate world much later in life than men, according to research. Because of the way that family responsibilities are still broken down in our society, women often have competing obligations to have children and take care of them earlier in life. “If we’re talking about politics, a woman’s prime is your 50s, 60s, 70s,” she says.

The same is true for the labor market, says Alicia Modestino, associate professor of public policy, urban affairs and economics at Northeastern and research director at Dukakis Center.

Continue reading at Northestern Global News.

More Stories

Sen. Dianne Feinstein remembered as trailblazer for women in politics, ardent defender of human rights

09.29.2023
The Pentagon is seen on Sunday, Aug. 27, 2023, in Washington.

Homeland security expert details what would a government shutdown mean for US national defense

09.29.2023
The Google sign is shown over an entrance to the company’s new building in New York on Wednesday, Sept. 6, 2023.

Google monopoly trial shows appetite for enforcement on Big Tech, antitrust experts say

09.29.23
Q&A