The Qualifications Gap

Abstract

The Gendered Qualification Gap No country can ever truly flourish if it stifles the potential of its women and deprives itself of the contributions of half of its citizens.-Michelle Obama The United States stands out as one of the only democratic nations yet to elect a woman as the head of state. Over the last fifty-six presidential elections, just a handful of women even dared to run for the presidency. Arguably, the most serious female presidential contender is Hillary Clinton, who ran in both 2008 and 2016. A constant critique Hillary Clinton faced during both her presidential races is that she lacked the qualifications necessary to serve as president. Clinton's resume in 2016 included serving as Secretary of State under the Obama administration, twice winning election to the Senate, having an active role developing policy as First Lady, and being a lawyer at a top Arkansas law firm. Clinton faced qualification criticisms from her primary election challenger and her general election opponent. Trump notably contended that Clinton lacked that "presidential look." The most common "look" sported by the forty-four presidents who served in office prior to 2016 is that they are all men. Trump further called Clinton too weak, too frail, and lacking the stamina necessary for the challenges of the presidency. The news media contributed, in part, to the narrative of Clinton as "questionably qualified" for the presidency, discussing Clinton's qualifications frequently with abundant coverage about her role as Secretary of State in the Benghazi terrorist attacks and her use of a private email server. For example, a quick news search in the final eight weeks of the

Outside of the Old Boys Club? Gender Differences in Outside Groups’ Advertising Support for U.S. Senate Candidates

“…Second, though women's media coverage is becoming more balanced (Banwart et al, 2003;Bystrom et al, 2004), gendered challenges remain. Coverage of female candidates continues to draw disproportionate attention to women's appearances (Andrich et al, 2023;Bystrom et al, 2004;Carlin and Winfrey, 2023;van der Pas and Aaldering, 2020), their viability or "electability" (Gibbons, 2022;van der Pas and Aaldering, 2020), likability or warmth (Carlin and Winfrey, 2023;Cassese et al, 2021;Godble et al, 2019), the "novelty" of women in office (Bauer, 2020;Bauer and Taylor, 2023;Gibbons, 2022;O'Regan and Stambough, 2011), and/or women's personal lives (Banwart et al, 2003;Bauer, 2020;Bauer and Taylor, 2023;Gibbons, 2022;van der Pas and Aaldering, 2020). Some trait coverage continues to come at the expense of issues coverage (Dunaway et al, 2013).…”