Gender and Campaigns

Question 1

What explanations are there for why women are underrepresented in Congress? What is most likely the cause?

Answer 1

Political Ambition
Women are underrepresented in careers that feed into politics
* Law and business
* Most lawyers are men -> most common profession of politicians is lawyer
* Men consistently report more political ambition than women across
multiple levels of qualifications
* More unqualified and less qualified men running for office -> more men
running for office in general -> bound to win more elections
Recruitment
* Parties are more likely to recruit men
* Men are 15% more likely to have been encouraged to run for office
* Men are more likely to approach local leaders with the desire to run
for office
* We have seen shifting dynamics in how parties recruit

Question 2

How do women typically fare in elections compared to men? How has this changed over time?

Answer 2

In the olden days
* Less media coverage overall and higher percentage of coverage is horse race
coverage
* Media coverage more focused on personal life rather than policy and
professional life
* Perceived as more liberal
* Viewed to be more compassionate and less assertive compared to men
* Voters see the male traits as better for politics
More recent research suggests this probably isn’t the case anymore
* As partisanship has become the most important driver of vote choice
and political coverage, other factors like gender matter less

Question 3

Is media coverage systematically biased against women candidates?

Answer 3

Finds no systematic differences in media coverage in both content and
rate
* Men and women portrayed as equally competent and qualified

Question 4

Do men and women campaign differently?

Answer 4

Slight differences in advertising and messaging strategies
* Women
* Use less promotional ads and more contrast ads
* Use less personal focused and more policy focused
* Use more discussion of family and children’s issues
* Are more likely to attack their opponent
* Men are much less likely to use attack ads against women candidates and
more likely to be policy focused