Candidate backtracks after saying office is ‘a man’s job’

Published 3:56 pm Wednesday, July 17, 2019

(AP) — A Democratic man running for office in Mississippi says he wasn’t criticizing all women — just one — when he said being county supervisor is “a man’s job.”

Malcolm Johnson told WAPT-TV Tuesday that he’s not against women being supervisors, and “not even against women being president of (the) United States.”

Johnson is running for Hinds County supervisor. Speaking on WOAD radio in February, Johnson said community activist Rukia Lumumba needs to “learn to be a woman.” He continued: “A woman needs to be a woman. Supervisor is a man’s job.”

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Lumumba isn’t running for supervisor. She tells WJTV-TV that Johnson’s statement “perpetuates this idea that women are inferior to men.”

Two Republican men running for Mississippi governor recently said they won’t meet privately with women, even in professional settings.