The 2008 U.S. presidential election was historic on many levels. The country elected its first African American president who narrowly defeated a female candidate in the Democrat primary race. The Republicans nominated their first woman as a vice presidential candidate. Hillary Clinton and Sarah Palin demonstrated that women politicians have come a long way; however, an analysis of media coverage reveals that lingering sexism toward women candidates is still alive and well. Using common stereotypes of women in corporations developed by Rosabeth Moss Kanter, language theories, and media framing, this essay uncovers the common gendered stereotypes that surfaced in the 2008 campaign. The analysis indicates that there was a considerable amount of negative coverage of both candidates and that such coverage has potential to cast doubt on a woman's suitability to be commander-in-chief or in the wings.

Have You Come a Long Way, Baby? Hillary Clinton, Sarah Palin, and Sexism in 2008 Campaign Coverage

Women are underrepresented at all levels of elected office. It is suspected that gender stereotypes hinder the electoral success of female candidates, but empirical evidence is inconclusive on whether stereotypes have a direct effect on voting decisions. This empirical conflict stems, in part, from the assumption that voters automatically rely on gender stereotypes when evaluating female candidates. This study explicitly tests the assumption of automatic stereotype activation. I suggest that stereotype reliance depends on whether stereotypes have been activated during a campaign, and it is only when stereotypes are activated that they influence evaluations of female candidates. These hypotheses are tested with a survey experiment and observational analysis. The results show that campaign communication activates stereotypes when they otherwise might not be activated, thereby diminishing support for female candidates.

Emotional, Sensitive, and Unfit for Office? Gender Stereotype Activation and Support Female Candidates

This study analyzes news coverage of 4 female political candidates—Elizabeth Dole, Claire McCaskill, Hillary Clinton, and Sarah Palin—and their male competitors, as each competed in 2 elections between 1999 and 2008. Analysis focused on novelty labeling, and ‘‘feminine’’ and ‘‘masculine’’ political issues and character traits to determine whether the coverage of women and men differed in general, and across the offices of Senator, Governor, Vice President, or President. Overall, women received more news coverage, and the gendered gap in coverage was especially large for novelty, issue, and trait coverage when women sought the ‘‘executive’’ offices of Governor and in the White House. These findings provide insight into the evolving gender dynamics of women running within the masculinized domain of politics. doi:10.1111/j.1460-2466.2011.01621.x In 1984, Geraldine Ferraro became the first female nominee for the White House on a major political ticket when she was named the Democratic Party’s vice presidential candidate. To some, gender equality in U.S. presidential politics seemed in sight. But it was not until the 2008 campaign that a woman from either of the two major parties was again seriously considered for the presidency or vice presidency. Even then, challenges abounded for these women via stereotypes in some news coverage. In2006, Washington Post columnistJoelAchenbachwrotethisaboutHillaryClinton: ‘‘She’s running. You can tell by the hair, which has finally stopped changing styles, every strand frozen in place, as though she’s ready to be on a coin’’ (Achenbach, 2006). Two years later, New York Times columnist Maureen Dowd said this about Sarah Palin: ‘‘Sarah has single-handedly ushered out the ‘Sex and the City’ era, and made the sexy new model for America a retro one—the glamorous Pioneer Woman, packing a gun, a baby, and a Bible’’ (Dowd, 2008). Scholar Melody Rose (2008) highlighted the difficulties faced by these candidates: ‘‘For all the ways in which Sen.

http://library.pcw.gov.ph/sites/default/files/is%20she%20man%20enough%20women%20candidates.pdf

Is She “Man Enough”? Women Candidates, Executive Political Offices, and News Coverage

Do the media cover men and women politicians and candidates differently? This article performs a systematic analysis of 90 studies covering over 25,000 politicians in over 750,000 media stories, and presents the accumulated knowledge in a comprehensive theoretical framework. The paper shows that there is a gender bias in the amount of coverage of politicians in proportional electoral systems, where women politicians lag behind men in media attention, but that, surprisingly, this gender bias is absent in majoritarian electoral systems. In addition, we systematically review gender differences in the content of media reports on political candidates, such as differences in attention to private life and family, viability and horse-race coverage, issue coverage, and gender stereotypes. Overall, women politicians receive more attention to their appearance and personal life, more negative viability coverage, and, to some extent, stereotypical issue and trait coverage. We conclude by pointing out promising avenues for future research.

/pdf/gender-differences-in-political-media-coverage-a-meta-3a8scl9p3r.pdf

Gender Differences in Political Media Coverage: A Meta-Analysis

The Application of Social Role Theory to the Study of Gender in Politics

This article analyzes two data sets to determine differences in print media coverage of Elizabeth Dole and five other Republican contenders for the presidential nomination in 1999: George W. Bush, John McCain, Alan Keyes, Gary Bauer, and Steve Forbes. Our findings indicate that Dole received a differential amount and type of print media coverage that was decidedly gendered and may have hindered her candidacy. Dole did not receive an amount of media coverage consistent with her standing as the number two candidate in the polls throughout the time period we examined, and the press paid more attention to Dole's personality traits and appearance than to the traits and appearance of other candidates. Journalists also repeatedly framed Dole as the “first woman” to be a serious presidential candidate and focused on her gender more than any other aspect of her candidacy, suggesting implicitly, if not explicitly, that she was a novelty in the race rather than a strong contender with a good chance of winning.

“She Brought Only a Skirt”: Print Media Coverage of Elizabeth Dole's Bid for the Republican Presidential Nomination

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“She Brought Only a Skirt”: Print Media Coverage of Elizabeth Dole's Bid for the Republican Presidential Nomination