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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
Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/448944Accessed: 22/01/2010 06:54
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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
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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-
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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-
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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
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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.
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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.
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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
7/26/2019 Gender Differences in Campaign Mesages
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