Women on the Run
Gender, Media, and Political Campaigns in a Polarized Era

The book argues that contrary to conventional wisdom, the candidate's sex plays a minimal role in the majority of US elections.

Danny Hayes (Author), Jennifer L. Lawless (Author)

9781107115583, Cambridge University Press

Hardback, published 3 May 2016

196 pages, 24 b/w illus. 9 tables
23.9 x 15.3 x 1.6 cm, 0.4 kg

'Overall, Women on the Run provides a clear framework for assessing media communications and print media coverage of candidates, one that can be easily replicated for different election years and offices (e.g., gubernatorial, senatorial races). … This study goes a long way in demonstrating that print media are not biased against women who run for the House, and academics should take the initiative to spread the word.' Meredith Conroy, Congress and the Presidency

Claims of bias against female candidates abound in American politics. From superficial media coverage to gender stereotypes held by voters, the conventional wisdom is that women routinely encounter a formidable series of obstacles that complicate their path to elective office. Women on the Run challenges that prevailing view and argues that the declining novelty of women in politics, coupled with the polarization of the Republican and Democratic parties, has left little space for the sex of a candidate to influence modern campaigns. The book includes in-depth analyses of the 2010 and 2014 congressional elections, which reveal that male and female House candidates communicate similar messages on the campaign trail, receive similar coverage in the local press, and garner similar evaluations from voters in their districts. When they run for office, male and female candidates not only perform equally well on Election Day - they also face a very similar electoral landscape.

1. Gender, myth, and reality on the campaign trail
2. Rethinking and reassessing gender differences on the campaign trail
3. That's what she said, and so did he
4. Sex is no story
5. The party, not the person
6. The origins and implications of perceptions of gender bias.

Subject Areas: Political campaigning & advertising [JPVL], Constitution: government & the state [JPHC], Gender studies: women [JFSJ1]