Loading...

Gender and Politics

Changing the Face of Civic Life

by Mary C. Banwart (Author) Dianne G. Bystrom (Author)
©2024 Textbook XVI, 286 Pages

Summary

Still today, the unequal and gendered distribution of power and participation in American politics remains perplexing. To address this challenge, Banwart and Bystrom examine the research from political communication, political science, and psychology to deepen our understanding of the intersection of gender and politics.
Starting with the most common theoretical approaches, they trace the history of women’s right to vote in the U.S., women’s political participation, the political socialization of U.S. citizens, gendered political candidate communication, and gendered media coverage. The authors demonstrate how gender stereotypes play an influential role in citizens’ perceptions of both politics and those seeking to participate in it. They conclude with an analysis of the 2022 midterm election cycle to expose lessons learned and existing barriers as we look to 2024 and beyond.

Table Of Contents

  • Cover
  • Title
  • Copyright
  • About the author
  • About the book
  • This eBook can be cited
  • Contents
  • List of Tables
  • List of Text Boxes (Spotlights)
  • Foreword
  • Preface
  • Chapter 1 Gender, Theory, and Politics
  • Chapter 2 Voting Rights and Gender Differences
  • Chapter 3 Women and Men as Political Citizens
  • Chapter 4 Gender, Electoral Success, and Political Ambition
  • Chapter 5 Attitudes Toward Women and Men as Political Candidates
  • Chapter 6 Gender, Politics, and the Media
  • Chapter 7 Gender and Candidate Communication
  • Chapter 8 Implications for Women in 2024 and Beyond
  • Index

List of Tables

Table 4.12018 Election Win Rates for Non-Incumbent Candidates by Gender, Party, and Level of Office

Table 4.22022 Election Win Rates for Non-Incumbent Candidates by Gender, Party and Level of Office

Table 8.1Issue Mentions by Candidate Gender

Table 8.2Issue Mentions by Candidate Party Affiliation

Table 8.3Trait Mentions by Candidate Gender, Party Affiliation, and Race Type

Table 8.4Family Mentions by Candidate Gender, Party Affiliation, and Race Type

Foreword

At the heart of how citizens, governments, and the media interact is the communication process, a process that is undergoing tremendous change. We have never experienced a time when confronting the complexity of these evolving relationships has been so important to the maintenance of our democracy and civil society. The Frontiers in Political Communication series features scholarship that advances our understanding of this process from multiple perspectives, and as it occurs in both institutionalized and non-institutionalized political settings. The work included as part of this series provides new perspectives on traditional political communication questions and also promotes innovative approaches to political communication scholarship that broaden the frontiers of study and our understanding of the political landscape.

The current volume offers a comprehensive examination of gender in politics by two of the political communication field’s preeminent scholars—Dr. Mary Christine Banwart and Dr. Dianne G. Bystrom. Their fresh and careful analyses combine a full picture of both political content and effects and is highly original and sophisticated in its theoretical grounding and methodological rigor, revealing the complex barriers that limit women’s representation in our public and political sphere. Drawing from research across multiple disciplines, the chapters that follow provide a detailed examination of the study of gender and politics from the fields of political science, psychology, sociology, and political communication. The authors explore the complex role that gender plays in political campaigns—with a spotlight on both candidates and voters—and offer an important understanding of the ways in which voters are socialized, the media’s role in the coverage of candidates, the influence of gender on attitudes about women’s and men’s place in politics, and how gender influences candidates’ communicative attempts to gain voter/constituency support. The book also includes an analysis of the 2022 midterm election cycle for lessons learned as we look forward to 2024. While research from past cycles suggests that female and male candidates were defining their candidacies with more similarities than differences, the research presented here suggests a reversal of that trend in the most competitive races from 2022 that included a female candidate.

The book concludes by connecting the key findings presented across the chapters to propose and justify the continued advocacy that increases women’s representation. Banwart and Bystrom propose four essential reasons to increase women’s representation: more work gets done, increased financial stability, a greater diversity of issues are addressed, and the importance of representation. Yet, they caution, key barriers to realizing gender equality remain. Grounded in detailed and comprehensive empirical research, Banwart and Bystrom identify both the structural and systemic barriers that require our attention along with individual barriers. In doing so, they offer a prescription for the next steps each of us can take to be part of a solution that moves our democracy forward. As they make clear, gender equality is not the only challenge our democracy faces, although it is an essential element of a healthy, robust, and representative democracy. And that changing the face of politics will require all of us in doing our part.

Banwart and Bystrom, the co-authors of Gender and Politics: Changing the Face of Civic Life, have a combined 50 years of experience in the field of political communication and with a program of research focused on women and the role of gender in politics. Both have published scores of journal articles and book chapters examining key questions regarding the gendered content of political candidates’ television ads, the gendered media coverage of female and male political candidates, voter perceptions of women as political candidates and political actors, and the effects of candidate communication on voters. In 2004, they co-authored a book on gender and candidate communication and since have co-edited books on the 2012, 2016, and 2020 elections.

In addition, Banwart co-edited a book on the 2008 election and has published research on gender and the content of candidate websites, debate performances, and political knowledge. As part of her program of research, she studies how sexist attitudes and social dominance beliefs drive vote choice and influence perceptions of viable candidate images. She also co-directs a statewide study of municipal boards and commissions in an effort to create greater transparency around civic engagement and service at the local level as well as to shine a spotlight on the lack of gender balance across the political appointments process.

Bystrom also has co-edited books on the 1996 and 2000 elections; a book on civic engagement; and a two-volume encyclopedia on women in the American political system as voters, candidates, and office holders. She has contributed a chapter on gender and candidate communication for all five editions of Gender and Elections: Shaping the Future of American Politics with colleagues in the fields of political science, gender studies, and ethnic studies.

Both scholars have taught classes at large public universities in political communication, campaign communication, women and politics, and women and leadership. Banwart and Bystrom have experience establishing and directing interdisciplinary academic programs in leadership studies at the University of Kansas and Iowa State University, respectively.

They also have practical experience in addressing gendered issues in political campaigns. Banwart directs the nonpartisan “Ready to Run Kansas” civic engagement program, which prepares women to run for political office and serve on civic boards and commissions. She also has advised local and statewide candidates on their campaign media messaging and polling. Bystrom—who began her career as a newspaper reporter and in university public relations—has worked with local, state, and national women’s organizations to recruit and support women to seek elected and appointed political office. She founded and directed the nonpartisan “Ready to Run Iowa: Campaign School for Women” at Iowa State for 10 years as part of a national network headquartered at the Center for American Women and Politics at Rutgers University.

Together, Banwart and Bystrom bring a breadth of academic and practical experience to co-author this important book, which examines gender and politics from a multidisciplinary perspective for use in classes on political communication, political science, gender and politics, and political leadership as well as a resource for political campaign practitioners and candidates.

Mitchell S. McKinney, Ph.D.

The University of Akron

Professor of Communication &

Dean, Buchtel College of Arts and Sciences

Series co-editor, Frontiers in Political Communication

PREFACE

On July 21, as this book was in press, the 2024 presidential race took a dramatic turn. President Joe Biden announced on social media that he would not accept the Democratic Party’s nomination for reelection and endorsed Vice President Kamala Harris.

Democratic Party support for Harris – a 59-year-old woman of South Asian and Jamaican descent – quickly coalesced. Within 24 hours, her campaign raised $81 million and secured enough delegates to win a virtual roll call vote – to occur before the August 19-22 convention – for the party’s nomination.

Biden’s exit followed his poor debate performance against former President Donald Trump on June 27. Although the 78-year-old Trump unleashed a documented 30-plus lies during the 90-minute debate, the media’s coverage instead focused on 81-year-old Biden’s ability to effectively campaign for the November 5 election. Following the debate, 53 members of Congress called on Biden to end his reelection bid.

Then, on July 13 – days before the Republican National Convention – Trump survived an assassination attempt at a Butler, PA, rally. At the convention, Trump named U.S. Senator JD Vance of Ohio – a 39-year-old first elected to political office in 2022 – as his running mate. Trump accepted the party’s presidential nomination on July 18, the day after he entered the convention to James Brown’s song “It’s a Man’s Man’s Man’s World.”

Conversely, on July 22 and in her first appearance as the Democratic Party’s presumptive nominee, Harris walked on stage to Beyoncé’s “Freedom” – tying the song’s themes to a campaign that will fight for various freedoms with a vision for the future.

As Harris was emerging as the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee, the sexist and racist attacks, along with disinformation about her credentials, began. This time, however, Democrats, some Republicans, and members of media immediately began calling out these attacks for their sexism, racism, and lies. Is this a sign that the final months of the 2024 presidential campaign will be different?

In 2024, reproductive rights and other freedoms are on the ballot. Instead of two older White male candidates, America’s choice for president will present distinct differences across age, race, ethnicity, gender, policies, and the future direction of our country. Our book sets the stage for understanding what is at stake.

· 1 ·Gender, Theory, and Politics

For decades scholars have puzzled over the unequal and gendered distribution of power and participation in politics. For a country built on democratic representation, our seeming resistance to fulfilling the ideals of fair and equal representation in the United States remains perplexing and concerning still over two centuries later. As such, questions arising from this imbalance have produced a body of literature focused on exploring and understanding the political experiences, opinions, and ambitions of women and men. The theories relied on to deepen our understanding of the intersection of gender and politics most often originate from the disciplines of political communication, political science, and psychology. And it is this interdisciplinarity that provides a foundation for the study of gender and political communication, gender and representation, and gendered roles and expectations.

Throughout this book much of our focus will be on the social scientific models that seek to clarify and illuminate how women present themselves and engage as political actors. However, we would be remiss not to acknowledge the rhetorical theories that have influenced many of these models. Certainly, others have effectively provided exhaustive reviews of the theories that inform and shape the study of gender broadly (e.g., Dow & Wood, 2006; Fixmer-Oraiz & Wood, 2018; Paxton et al., 2007; W. Wood & Eagly, 2002), and our work here is not to duplicate those efforts. Instead, the intention of this chapter is to bring together the theoretical perspectives that have created a foundation for studies of gender and politics specifically, and to offer areas that remain ripe for continued study. Therefore, the theoretical underpinnings that we address in this chapter are those that have grounded studies of gender and political candidates, how the media covers candidates in electoral politics, voter reactions to candidates and their messages, and the socializing constructs that inform how women and men engage with and develop democratic attitudes about politics and civic life.

Gender and Communication

The complex phenomenon of communication has been carefully defined as “a dynamic, systemic process in which two levels of meanings are created and reflected in human interaction with symbols” (Fixmer-Oraiz & Wood, 2018). Indeed, communication is a dynamic, ongoing process that is influenced by the systems of context and culture. As such, communication relies on a use of abstract symbols anchored in past experiences, values, thoughts, and feelings, which are essential for the interpretation of its meaning (Fixmer-Oraiz & Wood, 2018). Mary Stuckey notes that when we bridge communication with the political, the task is about the “creation, dissemination, and absorption of the symbolic messages that comprise our political life” (1996, p. viii).

Most often the model adopted to study gender and politics conceptualizes gender from a biological perspective and/or as a culturally constructed variable through which attitudes, preferences, and behaviors can be analyzed and understood. When communication is included, the political messages themselves become the object of study, as do the effects of such messages on evaluations of the female and male politicians, along with the ways in which politics is conceptualized and internalized from a socialization and engagement perspective. Thus, numerous theories have been developed to better understand the social construction of gender and its effects on communication style and perceptions within the political context. We find Bate and Bowker’s categorization of the primary lens for studying gender and communication to be a particularly useful way to conceptualize theories examining gender and politics, and as such have structured this section of our theory discussion through the lens of the following four frames: biological, cultural, rhetorical, and power.

Details

Pages
XVI, 286
Publication Year
2024
ISBN (PDF)
9781433180613
ISBN (ePUB)
9781433180620
ISBN (MOBI)
9781433180637
ISBN (Hardcover)
9781433127878
ISBN (Softcover)
9781433127861
DOI
10.3726/b16937
Language
English
Publication date
2024 (August)
Keywords
Gender and communication theories women’s suffrage movement gender gap political socialization political ambition women’s campaign schools gender stereotypes voter evaluations of candidates gendered media coverage gender and candidate communication addressing barriers future implications
Published
New York, Berlin, Bruxelles, Chennai, Lausanne, Oxford, 2024. XVI, 286 pp., 6 b/w tables.
Product Safety
Peter Lang Group AG

Biographical notes

Mary C. Banwart (Author) Dianne G. Bystrom (Author)

Mary Christine Banwart (Ph.D. University of Oklahoma) is a professor of communication studies at the University of Kansas. Dianne G. Bystrom (Ph.D. University of Oklahoma) is director emerita of the Carrie Chapman Catt Center for Women and Politics at Iowa State University.

Previous

Title: Gender and Politics