Candidates and Campaigns

  • The 2008 Candidacies of Hillary Clinton and Sarah Palin: Cracking the ‘Highest, Hardest Glass Ceiling’

    by Susan J. Carroll and Kelly Dittmar
    Book chapter in Gender and Elections: Shaping the Future of American Politics (2nd Edition), Eds. Susan J. Carroll, CAWP, Rutgers University and Richard L. Fox, Union College, New York
    Cambridge University Press, 2009

    This chapter examines the ways that various gender stereotypes influenced the strategies employed by the 2008 campaigns of Hillary Clinton and Sarah Palin, the media’s coverage of their campaigns, and public reactions to the candidates.  It begins with a brief historical review of women’s efforts to run for president and vice president, focusing largely on major party candidates.  It then provides short overviews of the backgrounds and accomplishments of both Clinton and Palin before turning its attention to several major gender stereotypes and the ways these stereotypes affected their campaigns.

    Book Chapter
    Research
    CAWP Scholar
    Candidates and Campaigns
    Federal Executive
  • Gender and Election to the State Legislatures: Then and Now

    by Susan J. Carroll and Kira Sanbonmatsu
    Paper presented at the Ninth Annual State Politics and Policy Conference, 2009

    Carroll and Sanbonmatsu compare the background characteristics and experiences of women and men state legislators over time using data from the 2008 and 1981 CAWP Recruitment Studies. 

    Conference Paper
    Research
    CAWP Scholar
    Candidates and Campaigns
    Candidate Recruitment
    State Legislature
  • Gender and the Decision to Run for the State Legislature

    by Susan J. Carroll and Kira Sanbonmatsu
    Paper presented at the 2009 Midwest Political Science Association annual meeting

    Carroll and Sanbonmatsu find important gender differences in the initial decision to seek state legislative office. They find that women are more likely than men to seek office because they were encouraged to run and that family and organizational support play a larger role in women’s candidacy decisions than in men’s. 

    Conference Paper
    Research
    CAWP Scholar
    Candidates and Campaigns
    Candidate Recruitment
    State Legislature
  • “Reflections on Gender and Hillary Clinton’s Presidential Campaign: The Good, the Bad, and the Misogynic

    by Susan J. Carroll
    Politics & Gender 2009, Volume 5 (March)

    Reflecting on the 2008 presidential election, Carroll examines the role that gender stereotypes seem to have played in key decisions made by the Clinton campaign, as well as the power and sexism that the media exhibited in their coverage of the Democratic race. 

    Article
    Research
    CAWP Scholar
    Candidates and Campaigns
    Federal Executive
  • Gender Backlash in American Politics?

    by Kira Sanbonmatsu
    Politics and Gender (September 2006) 

    The author introduces the idea of a backlash against women's representation, proposes several preliminary hypotheses about a backlash, and discusses ways of testing them.

    Article
    Research
    CAWP Scholar
    Political Parties
    Candidates and Campaigns
    State Legislature
  • ​Gender Stereotypes and Attitudes Toward Gender Balance in Government

    by Kathleen Dolan and Kira Sanbonmatsu
    American Politics Research, August 2008

    The desire to elect more women to public office is likely to affect a range of political behaviors and may explain the relatively low levels of women's descriptive representation overall. Yet, little is known about the public's view of the ideal gender composition of government. The authors find that the public expresses a preference for higher levels of women's representation than the country has experienced. Women are more likely than men to express a view, though men and women do not differ in their preferences on the ideal percentage of male officeholders. The article examines the role of gender stereotypes and the experience of being

    Article
    Research
    CAWP Scholar
    Candidates and Campaigns
    Women Voters and the Gender Gap
    Congress
  • She's the Candidate! A Woman for President

    by Ruth B. Mandel
    Book chapter in Women and Leadership: The State of Play and Strategies for Change, Eds. Barbara Kellerman and Deborah L. Rhode 
    Jossey-Bass J-B Warren Bennis Series, 2007

    Women and Leadership brings together in one comprehensive volume preeminent scholars from a range of disciplines to address the challenges involving women and leadership. The experts explore when and how women exercise power and what stands in their way, including current thinking on the perils of stereotypes, the importance of leadership style, gender differences in the decision to seek leadership roles, lessons from women leaders, “opt out” patterns and the need for flexible career paths, global inequalities and initiatives, and strategies that get women to the top. Order the book.

    Book Chapter
    Research
    CAWP Scholar
    Candidates and Campaigns
    Federal Executive
  • Do Parties Know that ‘Women Win’? Party Leader Beliefs about Women’s Electoral Chances

    by Kira Sanbonmatsu
    Politics & Gender 2006 (December)

    In an analysis of state legislative election results, the author finds few gender differences in candidates' vote share and success rates—two widely used measures of the status of women candidates. Yet many party leaders report that one gender has an electoral advantage. These party leader perceptions are related to the objective measures of women's electoral success to some extent. However, most analyses reveal a gap between elite perceptions and objective measures of women's status as candidates. This disjuncture suggests that scholars may have overestimated the extent of party leader and voter support for women. 

    Article
    Research
    CAWP Scholar
    Political Parties
    Candidates and Campaigns
  • Where Women Run: Gender and Party in the American States

    by Kira Sanbonmatsu 
    University of Michigan Press, 2006, 264 pages

    Drawing on surveys and case studies of party leaders and legislators in six states, the author analyzes the links between parties and representation, exposing the mechanism by which parties’ informal recruitment practices shape who runs – or doesn’t run – for political office in the United States. 

    Book
    Research
    CAWP Scholar
    Political Parties
    Candidates and Campaigns
    Candidate Recruitment
  • Gender and Elections: Shaping the Future of American Politics, 1st Edition

    Eds. Susan J. Carroll, CAWP, Rutgers University and Richard L. Fox, Union College, New York
    Cambridge University Press, 2005 First Edition, 240 pages 

    Gender and Elections offers a systematic, lively, multi-faceted account of the role of gender in the electoral process through the 2004 elections. This volume strikes a balance between highlighting the most important developments for women as voters and candidates in the 2004 elections and providing a more long-term, in-depth analysis of the ways that gender has helped shape the contours and outcomes of electoral politics in the United States. Individual chapters demonstrate the importance of gender in understanding and interpreting presidential elections, voter participation and turnout, voting choices, congressional elections, the

    Book
    Research
    CAWP Scholar
    Political Parties
    Candidates and Campaigns
    Gender and Race/Ethnicity
    Women Voters and the Gender Gap
    State Legislature
    Statewide Executive
    Congress
    Federal Executive