“Deal me in”: Hillary Clinton and gender in the 2016 US presidential election

Abstract

Hillary Clinton’s nomination as the first female presidential candidate to represent a major party in the 2016 US presidential election represented a key moment in US history. The focus on her gender during the campaign was intensified following the accusation by Republican Party nominee, Donald Trump, that Clinton was “playing the woman card”. The present article explores US media constructions of Clinton’s orientation to the topic of gender during the presidential campaign. Data were identified by searching the Lexis Advance® database between 4 February 2016 and 8 November 2016. Using a qualitative methodology guided by a Critical Discursive Psychology approach, we identify two discursive repertoires that were repeatedly mobilised in these media accounts: 1) a repertoire in which the principle of merit was used to undermine arguments for gender equality, and 2) a repertoire in which Clinton’s espoused version of feminism was undermined as ‘old-fashioned’. These repertoires functioned to de-legitimise Clinton as a political candidate by positioning her as seeking special treatment as a woman, who played the victim of sexism and was out of touch with the interests and concerns of female voters. We demonstrate how attempts to counter such characterisations can be problematic for female leaders.

Porridge and misogyny: Rationalising inconspicuous misogyny in morning television shows

“…To date, discursive psychological studies have mainly focused on excavating manifestations of misogyny in political communication by scrutinising various discourses ranging from news and social media texts (Sakki & Martikainen, 2022; Sorrentino et al, 2021; Worth et al, 2016) to a political campaign video (Pettersson et al, 2023). For example, Sakki and Martikainen's (2022) examination of close to 400 negative forum posts targeting the Finnish Prime Minister Sanna Marin delineated four discursive portrayals of Marin as an (a) immoral, (b) incompetent, (c) calculating, or (d) inferior woman.…”