Gender Stereotypes and Congressional Campaign Strategies Público
Harrell, Jessica Lee (2011)
Published
Abstract
How do gender stereotypes (gender-based expectations about candidates' legislative interests and expertise) shape gender differences in congressional campaign strategies? Specifically, when and why might women and men emphasize different issues and/or traits? And why might some candidates be more likely than others to promote women's issues and traits in their campaigns, regardless of their gender and/or party? I argue that candidates' decisions to discuss or ignore an issue is a strategic best-reply to the likely campaign behavior of their opponents, given the particular issue preferences and priorities of voters and the candidates' own areas of issue expertise. From this perspective, gender stereotypes are not the central concern of candidates, but instead, are one of several factors that women and men must consider when creating their campaigns' issue emphasis. Using this strategic framework, I first develop a general model of candidate decision-making to generate and test expectations about the conditions under which a candidate will be more or less likely to discuss an issue. I then use the implications of this model to make predictions about the conditions under which gender differences in campaign issues are most likely to occur. In general, my model predicts few systematic differences between women and men. Despite sharing similar perceived issue competencies from gender stereotypes, all women (and all men) do not campaign in similar environments. They each face unique pressures and incentives from opponents and voters to discuss or ignore particular issues and these pressures can mitigate the effects of gender stereotypes in certain conditions.
I test my hypotheses quantitatively, using an original dataset of all major party, competitive U.S. House candidates in 2002, 2004, and 2006 that includes information about the issues and traits the candidates discussed in their television advertisements and websites; the candidates' party and gender-based issue and trait competencies; candidates' positions and district congruence on a set of twenty issues; and the saliency of the issues the candidates discussed in their campaigns.
Table of Contents
1: Introduction 1
2: Literature Review 9
3: Theory 24
4: Research Design and Measures 35
5: Model Tests 52
6: Predicting Gender Differences 78
7: Gender Differences in Trait Discussion 92
8: Case Studies 108
9: Conclusion 133
About this Dissertation
| School | |
|---|---|
| Department | |
| Degree | |
| Submission | |
| Language |
|
| Research Field | |
| Palavra-chave | |
| Committee Chair / Thesis Advisor | |
| Committee Members |
Primary PDF
| Thumbnail | Title | Date Uploaded | Actions |
|---|---|---|---|
|
|
Gender Stereotypes and Congressional Campaign Strategies () | 2018-08-28 13:42:36 -0400 |
|
Supplemental Files
| Thumbnail | Title | Date Uploaded | Actions |
|---|