Gender Differences in Media Coverage of Candidates

This past Sunday, Martha performed with the Tucson Girls Chorus at their annual fundraiser, "Duets and Dinner." She sang "Hall of Fame" as part of a trio with two of the girls. 

Before she went up on stage, Martha was mingling with the other attendees. A well meaning supporter told her that she was "actually pretty cute" and that she should put that in her campaign literature.

Historically, there seems to be a trend of voters and media focusing more on a female candidate's gender, personality and appearance rather than the issues at hand (and as mentioned in the last post, issue are also not gender neutral).

"Its maddening," Martha said, frustrated.

For example, when Elizabeth Dole ran in the presidential primary in 1999, the media would often emphasize her gender and refer to her appearance (Clift and Brazaitis 2000). Media coverage about female candidates more often includes discussion on gender, personality and appearances as Johanna Dunaway, an Assistant Professor of Political Science and Mass Communication of Louisiana State University, found in her study on gender differences in media coverage.

Dunaway's team perused 9,725 newspaper articles from 2006 and 2008 Senate and gubernatorial races throughout the country. In races with only male candidates, media coverage emphasized character traits 6 percent of the time and issues 55.5 percent of the time. When only women were running for the office, the articles focused on character traits 9.4 percent of the time and issues 51.7 percent of the time. When both male and female candidates were in the race, traits were focused on 10.8 percent of the time and the issues 53.1 percent of the time.