Gendered times: how gendered contexts shape campaign messages of female candidates

Bauer, Nichole M.; Santia, Martina

doi:10.1093/joc/jqac052

Cited by 8 publications

(4 citation statements)

References 58 publications

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“…The masculinity of the office may affect how much voters value communal self-promotion strategies, especially when the office is one where collaboration amongst colleagues is not seen as valuable. The electoral context can also shape the extent to which voters value communality in candidates (Bauer and Santia 2023). A context that calls for communality, such as the pandemic, may see voters valuing communality more than they might during an electoral context dominated by national security concerns where agentic self-promotion may carry more sway with voters.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…A gendered self-promotion backlash means that women incumbents might not be able to effectively engage in the conventional behaviors thought to secure reelection (Fenno 1978;Mayhew 1974). Indeed, recent studies find that feminine and masculine stereotypes shape the campaign communication environment for incumbents and challengers (Bauer and Santia 2023;Schneider 2014) and these gender stereotypes affect evaluations of female candidates (Anzia and Bernhard 2022;Bauer 2017;Ditonto, Hamilton, and Redlawsk 2014;Ditonto 2017).…”

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confidence: 99%

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Gendered Self-Promotion: Differences in How Voters Evaluate Women and Men Who Highlight Their Legislative Accomplishments

Bauer

2023

Political Research Quarterly

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Conventional wisdom suggests that women can face a punishment from voters for engaging in self-promotion. Self-promotion, highlighting your accomplishments, can be detrimental to women because such behavior violates feminine stereotypic expectations that women be modest and humble. I argue and show that voters do not punish women for engaging in self-promotion but there are different styles of self-promotion that are more beneficial to women than others. I argue that women will be most successful when they use a communal style of self-promotion that emphasizes feminine stereotypic qualities, such as compromise. Conversely, I argue that agentic forms of self-promotion, which draw on masculine qualities, will be less successful for women because agency violates feminine expectations for women. I test the effects of communal and agentic self-promotion using two experiments. The result shows two key findings. First, voters do not punish women incumbents for using agentic styles of self-promotion, but women receive more positive evaluations with communal self-promotion. Second, voters are slightly more likely to reward men for communal self-promotion relative to women legislators.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

mentioning

confidence: 99%

Gendered Self-Promotion: Differences in How Voters Evaluate Women and Men Who Highlight Their Legislative Accomplishments

Bauer

2023

Political Research Quarterly

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“…Comparative research provides two broad reasons for women's ascension to national leadership: 1) Women may be interpreted as amenable to the political will of men, and 2) Informed by a trope of motherhood, women may be read as unifiers of a country following social and political turmoil (Jalalzai & Krook, 2010). In some cases, women leaders have been able to leverage stereotypes about women's inherent honesty and integrity, as well as women's presumed loyalty to family, and use them to their benefit (Bauer & Santia, 2023). 5.…”

Section: Orcid Idmentioning

confidence: 99%

When Push Comes to Shove: An Experimental Analysis of Voter Support of a Woman President and the 2024 Nomination

Tadevich,

Hutson,

Shufeldt

2024

American Politics Research

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A woman has not yet shattered the “hardest, highest glass ceiling” of the American presidency. Our research answers two questions: Which groups are more likely to believe electing a woman president to be historically important? (R1), and When a presidential election is at stake, who is likely to support a woman candidate? (R2). Using observational data ( n = 1075), our findings indicate that women, people who recognize sexism within politics, Democrats, and liberals are more likely to view a woman president as historic. Utilizing a list experiment of hypothetical 2024 presidential matchups, few who claimed to view a woman president as historic were willing to cast a vote in their favor. When push came to shove, Democratic women were the group most likely to vote for a woman presidential candidate. As parties look toward the future, this study offers insight into how voters respond to potential nominees and who parties will nominate.

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“…Gender stereotypes play a role in shaping how women develop their campaign strategies (Bauer & Santia, 2023). Feminine stereotypes characterize women as nurturing, compassionate, and more suited for supportive or caregiving social roles (Prentice & Carranza, 2002).…”

Section: Gender Stereotypes and Campaign Negativitymentioning

confidence: 99%

How Women Attack: Candidate Reliance on Feminine and Masculine Traits in Campaign Negativity

Bauer

Hewitt

Labbe

2023

Communication Research

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We develop a framework to identify how women use negative messages in political campaigns. We argue that women will be more likely to use contrast negativity, messages that include a negative message against an opponent and a positive message about the candidate sponsoring the ad, rather than attack negativity, messages that only criticize an opponent. We also identify how feminine and masculine traits emerge in negativity—a strategy we call gendered trait negativity. We analyze gendered trait negativity in television ads from the Wesleyan Media Project (WMP) for House, Senate, and gubernatorial races from 2010 to 2018. Using logistic regression models, we find that women use contrast messages more than attack messages when running against a man. Second, we find that women are more likely to highlight feminine traits over masculine traits in negative messages when their opponent is a man relative to when their opponent is a woman.

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Gendered times: how gendered contexts shape campaign messages of female candidates

Cited by 8 publications

References 58 publications

Gendered Self-Promotion: Differences in How Voters Evaluate Women and Men Who Highlight Their Legislative Accomplishments

Gendered Self-Promotion: Differences in How Voters Evaluate Women and Men Who Highlight Their Legislative Accomplishments

When Push Comes to Shove: An Experimental Analysis of Voter Support of a Woman President and the 2024 Nomination

How Women Attack: Candidate Reliance on Feminine and Masculine Traits in Campaign Negativity

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