Gender Differences in Campaign Mesages

7/26/2019 Gender Differences in Campaign Mesages

1/23

University of Utah

Gender Differences in Campaign Messages: The Political Advertisements of Men and WomenCandidates for U. S. SenateAuthor(s): Kim Fridkin KahnSource: Political Research Quarterly, Vol. 46, No. 3 (Sep., 1993), pp. 481-502Published by: Sage Publications, Inc. on behalf of the University of Utah

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2/23

Gender

Differences

in

_

Campaign Messages:

The

Political

Advertisements of

Men

and

Women

Candidates

for U.S. Senate

KIM FRIDKIN

KAHN,

ARIZONATATENIVERSITY

In order o

see

whethermen and women

emphasize

different

messages

n

their

campaigns,

I examine the televised

political

advertisements f 38

candidates

or the

U.S.

Senatebetween 1984

and

1986.

In

addition,

look

at

patterns

of

campaign coverage

to determine whether the

press

distinguish

between male and female candidates. Since a candidate's

message

will

be most

persuasive

f that

message

is

echoed

by

the

press,

gender

differences

n

press

treatmentcan

have

electoral

consequences.

The resultsof this

study

show that male and femalesenatorial andidates

adopt campaign strategies

that are

similar

on certain dimensions and

strikingly

differenton others. Male and female

candidates

both

prefer

o

focus

on

policy

matters

n their

candidate-oriented

ppeals,although

hey

rarely

take

specific

stands on

issues.

Yet there are

important gender

differences

n

the advertisements f male and femalecandidatesand these

differences

correspond

to the candidates'

stereotypical

strengths.

Men

tend to concentrateon economic

issues,

while women are much more

likely

to

discuss social issues

such

as education

and health

policy.

These

differences

(and

others),

although

evident

in

their own

campaign

communications,

re not

represented

n media

coverage

of

the

candidates'

campaigns.

Women are less

likely

than men

to run

successfully

for

high political

office.

Of the

twenty-five

women

who ran

for the

U.S.

Senate between

1984

and

NOTE:The author

would

like

to

thank

John

Geer,

Rick

Herrera,

Pat

Kenney

and Donna

Wasserman or

helpful

advice on this

project.

The

authoralso

acknowledges

he

assistance

of the

PoliticalCommercialArchiveat the

University

of

Oklahomaand

the editorialassistance of Pat Crittenden.An earlier

version of this

paper

was

delivered

at

the Annual

Meeting

of the Western

Political Science

Association,

Seattle,

Washington,

March

21-23,

1991.

481


3/23

PoliticalResearch

Quarterly

1990,

only

two won.

One

candidate,

Nancy

Kassebaum

of

Kansas,

was an

incumbent, and the other, BarbaraMikulski of

Maryland,

won election

by

defeating

anotherwoman.

Several easonshave been offeredto

explain

women's

lack of

success

in the

electoral

arena,

including inadequate

access to

political

resources and sex

stereotyping

by

voters

(e.g.,

Bernstein

1986;

Boles

and

Durio

1981;

Gertzog

1979;

Hedlund

et al.

1979).

While

these

explanations

are

important,

I

introduce and test

another

potentially

important

explanation:

differences

in

the media

presentations

of

men

and women

candidates.

In

this

paper

I

examine televised

political

advertisements

to

see whether

men

and

women

candidates

emphasize different messages

in their

cam-

paigns.

If

they

do,

these

alternative

messages may

differ

in

their

electoral

effectiveness.

In

addition,

I examine

patterns

of

campaign coverage

to

see

whether the

press

distinguish

between

male

and

female

candidates in

their

coverage.

Since

a

candidate's

message

will be most

persuasive

if

that

message

is echoed

by

the

press, gender

differences in

press

treatment

can have elec-

toral

consequences.

Both

paid

and

unpaid

media attention

play

a central role

in

today's

elec-

toral

campaigns.

Candidates

try

to cultivate

good press during

their

campaigns

and they devote considerable resources to campaign advertising(Clarkeand

Evans

1983;

Goldenberg

and

Traugott

1984;

Joslyn

1984).

Paid

media,

such

as televised

political

advertisements,

are critical

in

campaigns

because these

commercials

present

the

candidate's

message

directly

to the

public.

In

addi-

tion,

political

advertisements

have the

power

to influence

voters'

perceptions

of

candidates,

thereby influencing

the electoral

fortunes

of these

candidates

(e.g., Joslyn

1984;

Ker

1989;

Pattersonand McClure

1976).

The

unpaid

media-the

news media-are

also crucial

in

electoral cam-

paigns,

because

voters

receive

the bulk of

their

campaign

information

from

these sources. The news media's

coverage

of

campaigns

can affect voters'rec-

ognition

of

candidates

by

conferring press

attention on certain candidates

while

ignoring

others

(Aldrich1980;

Bartels

1987;

Patterson

1980).

In

addition,

the substance

of news

coverage

often influences

evaluations

of

candidates

by

altering

the criteria

voters use to

judge

candidates

(Iyengar

and Kinder

1987;

Iyengar,

Peters,

and

Kinder

1982),

while the tone of

campaign coverage

sometimes

alters voters' reactions to candidates

(Goldenberg

and

Traugott

1987;

Joslyn

1984;

Patterson

1980).

In

this

paper

I

examine

gender

differences

in

paid

and

unpaid

media

messages

in

U.S.

Senate

campaigns.

I chose Senate races because of

the rel-

ative

abundance

of women

candidates and

because

of

the demonstrated

importance

of

the media in

statewide

campaigns (Goldenberg

and

Traugott

1987). First,

I

analyzed

the

candidates'

political

advertisements

o

see whether

male and female candidates

adopt

different media

appeals.

Since the sub-

482


4/23

Gender

Differences

n

CampaignMessages

stance of

spot

ads is controlled

by

the

candidate,

these

ads can be considered

the candidate's

presentation

of self' (Kaid and Davidson 1986); a close

examination

of these ads can

help

determine whether men and

women char-

acterize their candidacies

differently.

Another reason to look at

gender

differences

in

campaign

commercials s

that

they may

lead to

gender

differences

in the

effectiveness of these ads.

By

adopting

different

types

of

campaign appeals,

male and female

candidates

may

adopt appeals

that differ in their

impact

on voters.

Recent

experimental

work

suggests

that certain commercials issue ads and

positive

ads

-

are more

likely

to create

positive impressions

of

candidates

(e.g.,

Garramore

1986;

Kahn

and

Geer

1991;

Kaid and

Sander

1978).

In

addition,

Ansolabehereand

Iyengar's

(1991)

experimental

study

of television

advertising

in

the

1990

California

gubernatorial campaign suggests

that certain

appeals

are more

convincing

for women

candidates,

while others are more

profitable

for

male

candidates. Ansolabehere and

Iyengar

find,

for

example,

that attack

ds

were more effective for Peter Wilson than for Diane Feinstein.

Along

with the substance of the

candidates'

political

advertisements,

I

examine media

coverage

of the candidates'

campaigns. Comparing

the con-

tent of spot advertisementswith the coverageof the candidates in the news

can

help

determine whether the candidates'

messages

are

being

mirrored

by

the

news

media. The

campaign messages

that the

candidates

present

in

their

ads will be most coherent if

those

messages

are then echoed

by

the

press.

If

the

agendas

of the

candidate and the

news

media

do not

correspond,

then the

impact

of

the candidate's

message

may

be blunted. A

comparison

between

the content of the candidates'ads and

press

coverage

of

the candidates can

show whether and to what extent the news media's

emphasis

is different for

male and female candidates.

EXPECTATIONSBOUTGENDERDIFFERENCES

N

CAMPAIGNAPPEALS

Men and

women face different constraints in

the electoral

arena,

and these

differences

may

influence the

strategies they

adopt

in their

U.S.

Senate

campaigns.

In

particular,people's preconceptions

about

male and female

can-

didates

may

influence

the

campaign appeals

that

candidates

employ.

Candi-

dates often have a

choice:

they may adopt

strategies

that

exploit

voters'

stereotypes

about male and female

candidates,

or

they may try

to

dispel

stereotypes by acting

in

ways

inconsistent with their

traditional

strengths.

People'sstereotypes

about male

and female candidates

may

influence the

types

of issues that

candidates choose to

emphasize

in

their

campaign

mes-

sages.

Since voters

generally

believe that men are better at

dealing

with for-

eign policy

and economic

issues,

while

women are

better at

handling

social

issues

(e.g., Gallup

1984;

NationalWomen's

PoliticalCaucus

1987;

Rosenwas-

483


5/23

PoliticalResearch

Quarterly

ser

et

al.

1987;

Sapiro

1982),

male

and

female

candidates

may

emphasize

these alternative ssue domains in their

campaign

ads.

Voters'

priorities

about issues are often

responsive

to the

media's

empha-

sis

(e.g., Iyengar

and Kinder

1987;

MacKuen

1981),

so candidates can influ-

ence these

priorities during

their

campaigns.

Candidates

who

stress their

stereotypical

strengths

in their

campaigns

can make these issues salient

to

voters

and voters

may

consider

these issues when

evaluating

the

competing

candidates. Women candidates

may

choose to

concentrate

on

education,

a

stereotypicallystrong

issue for

women,

thereby

leading

voters to

believe

that

education is an importantissue. Voters may then think about the education

issue

when

evaluating

the

competing

candidates.

Of

course,

men

and

women

may

articulatealternative

agendas

for other

than

strategic

reasons. More

specifically, gender

differences

in

issue

emphasis

may

reflect real differences

in

the issue

priorities

of male and

female candi-

dates.

Research

examining

the

political

attitudes

of

women candidates and

women officeholders

suggests

that

women are more

supportive

of

social

issues such

as

abortion

and

the

ERA,

even

controlling

for

party

affiliation

(Carroll

1985;

Darcy,

Welch,

and Clark

1987;

Poole

and

Zeigler

1985).

In addition to stressing their policy prioritiesduring their Senate cam-

paigns,

candidates also

emphasize

their

personal

strengths. Again,

voters'sex

stereotypes

often influence the

types

of

personal

characteristics hat candi-

dates choose

to

highlight

in their

campaign appeals.

Since voters consider

women candidates

to

be more

compassionate

and

honest,

while

they

con-

sider

men to be

stonger

leaders and more

knowledgeable

(Ashmore

and Del

Boca

1979;

Boles and Durio

1981;

Gallup

1984;

National

Women's

Political

Caucus

1987),

candidates

may

develop campaign strategies

to

respond

to

these

stereotypes.

While candidates are

likely

to stress their

stereotypical strengths

when

discussing

issues,

such

may

not

be

the case for traits.

Although

the

public's

issue

agenda

is

susceptible

to

media

influence

(e.g.,

Iyengar,

Peters,

and

Kinder

1982;

Iyengar

and

Kinder

1987;

MacKuen

1981),

people's percep-

tions

of

importantpersonality

traits

may

be less flexible. Researchat

the

pres-

idential

level

suggests

that voters

consistently

consider

competence

and lead-

ership

when

evaluating competing

candidates

(e.g.,

Markus

1982; Miller,

Wattenberg,

and Malanchuk

1986).

In

addition,

since

people

evaluate candi-

dates based on prototypes of incumbent officeholders, (Kinderet al, 1980),

people's

images

of

the

prototypical

senator

may

be

masculine. Voters

may

thereforebe more

likely

to consider masculine traits-like

strength

and lead-

ership ability-when

evaluating

senatorial candidates. Given

the

importance

of

these masculine

traits,

both

male

and

female

candidates

may

emphasize

these traits

in

their

campaign

appeals.

Men

may highlight

their

stereotypical

484


6/23

Gender

Differences

n

CampaignMessages

strengths,

while

women

may

try

to eradicate

stereotypes through

unstereotypical ampaign

appeals.

In

addition to

specific

differences n traitand issue

agendas,

a

candidate's

gender

often influences

more

general

differences

in

campaign appeals.

In

par-

ticular,

candidate's

sex

may

determine whether a candidate makes a

personal

or a

policy-oriented appeal

to the electorate. Because

people

believe that

women are

less

competent

than men

(e.g.,

Ashmore

and Del Boca

1979;

Boles and Durio

1981,

Gallup

1984,

NationalWomen's

PoliticalCaucus

1987),

female candidates need to

emphasize

their

policy

concerns

in

their

campaign

commercials.By talkingabout their issue priorities,women candidates may

dispel

voters' doubts

about their

ability.

Male

candidates,

on

the

other

hand,

can

be

more flexible

in

their

appeals

since voters are more

confident about

their candidacies.

METHODOLOGY

Sample

of

Political

Advertisements

To

explore gender

differences

in

paid

and

unpaid

media

messages

in

U.S.

Senate campaigns, I examined televised political advertisementsand press

coverage

for a

sample

of

Senate candidates.In

1984

and

1986,

sixteen

women

ran for the

U.S.

Senate. Politicalcommercials were

obtained for ten of

these

women,

accounting

for

a

total of 81

spot

ads.'

By

stratifying

he

population

of

male

Senate candidates

by

status

(incumbent,

challenger, open-race

candi-

date)

and

strength

of

candidacy

based on

Congressional

uarterly

re-election

assessments,

I

selected a

sample

of

twenty-eight

male

candidates and 324

corresponding

political

commercials.2With

this

sample

of

405

spot

ads,

I can

compare

the

media

presentations

of men and

women Senate

candidates to

see whether there are differencesin the way men and women present them-

selves to the electorate.3

1

Political ommercialswere

unavailable or the other

women Senate

candidates. n

order

to bolster the

number of women

candidates n the

sample,

I

included New

Jersey's

1982 senatorial

candidate,

Millicent

Fenwick,

in

the

sample.

Fenwick was the

only

womancandidate n 1982 for whichadvertisementswereavailable.Although he num-

ber of

femalecandidates ncluded n

the

sample

s

necessarily

mall,

the

states included

do

vary

in

size and

by

region.

2

See

the

appendix

for a list

of the Senatecandidates

ncluded

in

the

sample.

3

All

the

political

ads used in

the

analysis

were obtained from

the

PoliticalCommerical

Archive

at the

University

of

Oklahoma.

485


7/23

PoliticalResearch

Quarterly

CODING

OF POLITICAL DS

One

researchercoded all commercials in the

sample.4

To ensure the reliabil-

ity

of the

coding,

two checks were

performed.

First,

I

coded

a

sample

of

articles

twice-once

at the start of the

coding

process

and once near the

end.

This

reliability

check

revealed that

coding

remained

stable,

with

98

percent

agreement

on most

measures.

Second,

I assessed

intercoder

reliability.

A

coder

unfamiliarwith the

objectives

of the

study

coded

a random

sample

of

the

political

advertisements.

The intercoder

reliability

agreement

or

this sam-

ple

of

ads was 96

percent,

with

agreementranging

from

100

percent

for some

coding categoriesto a minimum of 90 percent for other categories.

CODING OF NEWSPAPER

ONTENT

In

addition to

the

data

on

political

advertisement,

I

analyzed newspaper

cov-

erage

of male and female candidates for the

U.S.

Senate. With the addition of

the

newspaper

analysis,

we

can examine the

relationship

between the

candidates'own

messages

and the

messages

communicated

by

the

press.

By

comparing

these two

media,

we can see whether the

correspondence

between

the candidates' emphasis and the news media's emphasis is the same for

male and female

candidates.

I chose to

analyze

newspaper

coverage,

nstead

of

television

coverage,

for

both substantive and

practical

reasons. On the substantive

side,

there is

con-

siderable evidence that

newspapers

cover state-level

campaigns

more

exten-

sively

than local television

news

(Goldenberg

and

Traugott

1987;

Westlye

1991)

and that

people

receive more of their information

about

statewide

races from

newspapers

than

from television

(Clarke

and Fredin

1978).

Fur-

thermore

Wesdye explains

that

newspaperspresent

an

amount of informa-

tion that more

closely approximates

what

campaigns

are

issuing

as com-

pared

with

local

broadcastnews

(1991: 45).

On the

practical

ide,

newspapers

are

routinely

saved

on

microfilm,

making

them

easily

accessible for

analysis.

In

contrast,

tapes

of

local television news

are seldom available

after a cam-

paign,

making

the

examination

of television news more difficult.

I

analyzed campaign

coverage

for

thirty-two

of the

thirty-eight

candidates

included

in

the

political

advertising

analysis.

Given

that

the

newspaper

sam-

ple

and the

advertisingsample

do

not include

all

the same

races,

differences

in the

correspondence

between thse

two media

may

reflect differences

in

the

samples.

Therefore,

when

comparing

the two

media,

the

analysis

is limited to

those

races where

both

news

and

advertising

data are

available.

4

A

copy

of

the

complete

codesheet

is available

from the author

upon request.

486


8/23

GenderDifferences

n

CampaignMessages

The

newspapers

I chose for

analysis

were,

whenever

possible,

those

with

the

largest

circulation n the state, because of their

potential impact

on

large

numbers

of

people

in

the state.5

I

analyzed any

item

that

mentioned either

candidate,

including

news

articles, columns, editorials,

and news

analysis

articles

every day

from

September

1

through

the

day

of the elections.6 The

coding categories

for the

newspaper

analysis

mirror those

categories

used

in

the

content

analysis

of the

political

advertisements.

This

coding procedure

yielded

a

sample

of

2,538

articles.

RESULTS AND DISCUSSION

Gender

Differences

n the

Substance

of

Political

Commercials

An

examination

of

the

content of

spot

ads

is

important

because it will

give

us

clues

regarding

what voters

lear

during campaigns.

For

instance,

if women

emphasize

only

issues in their advertisementsand

virtually ignore

their

per-

sonal

characteristics,

voters

will

have little

opportunity

to

learn

about the

female candidates' traits via their

political

commercials.

Another

reason that

the substanceof politicalcommercials s so important s thatit representsthe

candidate's

own

campaign

message.

The substance of the

spot

ads

gives

us

a

sense of

what

candidates want to

emphasize

and can

illustrate

whether

men

and women differ

in how

they

represent

their

candidacies.

In

the

analysis

of

political

advertisements,

I treat the

candidate-not the ad-as the unit of

anal-

ysis

and

weigh

the

ads

accordingly. By using

the

candidate

as

the

unit of

analysis,

we avoid

giving

more

weight

to candidates

who

have

more

ads.

Candidateseither

emphasize

their own

strengths

in their

political

ads,

or

they

discuss

their

opponent's

weaknesses.

Candidate-oriented

commercials

paint a positive portraitof the candidateby discussing the candidate'squal-

ifications,

personality

traits,

or

issue

positions.

Opponent-oriented

commer-

cials,

on

the other

hand,

are

negative

or attack

ds that

emphasize negative

aspects

of the

opponent's

candidacy.

Although

experimental

research

suggests

that

candidate-oriented

ads will

be

more effective than

opponent-oriented appeals

(Kahn

and Geer

1991),

candidates and

campaign

consultants believe the

negative

ads work

Kern

5

The

largest

circulating ewspapers

n

Texas and Colorado

ould not be

obtainedso the

state

papers

with the second

largest

circulation the Houston ostand the DenverPost)

were

analyzed.

6

Intercoder

eliability

was measured

throughout

he

newspaper

coding

process.

Three

researchers oded the

newspaper

content and

reliabilityamong

the coders

was

high,

never

falling

below

85

percent agreement

and

reaching

as

high

as

100

percent

agree-

ment for some content

categories.

487


9/23

Political

Research

Quarterly

1989).

While

acknowledging

that

negative

ads can create a backlash

gainst

the candidate, consultants view these ads as effective tools for

long-shot

candidates

(Ker

1989).

Given the

advantages

and

disadvantages

outlined

by

campaign strategists,challengers

may

be

more

likely

to use attackads in their

campaigns.

Similarly,

women

candidates,

who

may

view

themselves

a

perennial

underdogs, may

be more

likely

to use

negative appeals

in

their

campaigns.

In this

sample

of

ads,

65

percent

of all the ads are

candidate-oriented,

while

35

percent

are

classified as

opponent-oriented.

As

expected,

incum-

bents are more

likely

than

challengers

o

use

these

positive

ads

in

their cam-

paigns.

Incumbents use

positive

ads

67 percent

of the

time,

while

challengers

use these

appeals

less than half of the time

(47

percent).7Similarly,

men are

more

likely

than women to air

candidate-oriented

appeals:

68

percent

of the

male candidates' ds and

53

percent

of

the female

candidates'

ds

are candidate-

oriented

(p

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Gender Differences in Campaign Mesages

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