Publications

This chapter relies on 2006 ANES Pilot Study to expand our understanding of voter attitudes about gender issues in important ways. The authors determine whether candidate gender is still an important cue in the face of the central influence of political party. In addition, the authors measure whether people have a preference for women or men in elected office.

In recent years, the movement of women into state-level offices has slowed following several decades of gains. Following the 2010 elections, the number of women in both state legislative and statewide elective office declined. Efforts to actively recruit women for elective and appointive positions will be critical in determining what the future holds for women in state government.

Do men and women take similar or different paths to public office? This paper examines the occupational and educational backgrounds, family situations, and prior political experiences of women state legislators and their male counterparts. 

 This paper explores the variation among and between campaign consultant perspectives, highlighting areas where gender matters more or less and recognizing the influence of consultants’ identities on their perceptions of gender and campaigns. As political actors with a growing presence and influence on campaigns, political consultants provide important insight to the campaign process and the gender dynamics therein. This insight contributes to a deeper understanding of campaigns as gendered institutions, whereby gender norms and expectations are embedded in the culture, structure, and processes of electoral politics.

Sanbonmatsu evaluates the role of political parties in electing women to office. She argues that the history of U.S. parties indicates that women’s organizations and movements, women leaders, and women voters are the keys to making political parties a help rather than a hindrance to women’s representation.

This paper investigates the routes that women take to the mayor’s office in big cities (with populations of 30,000 and above) using the 2008 CAWP Mayoral Recruitment Study. The authors investigate the backgrounds of women mayors and their decisions to seek municipal office for the first time.

This edited volume contains chapters by leading experts in the field of American elections and political behavior. Sanbonmatsu's chapter reviews research on gender differences in mass behavior and candidacy. She argues that future scholarship should focus on understanding the conditions under which gender structures political behavior and elections. In addition to calling for research on when gender as a social category is cued in politics, she argues that elections can create gender as a category: political behavior and elections themselves can shape beliefs about gender, instructing society about what men and women are like. 

Poised to Run presents the initial findings of a 2008 CAWP study that asked women and men in state legislatures about their routes to elective office.

The 2nd edition of this textbook describes the role of gender in the American electoral process through the 2008 elections. Tailored for courses on women and politics, elections, and gender politics, it strikes a balance between highlighting the most important developments for women as voters and candidates in the 2008 elections and providing a deeper analysis of the ways that gender has helped shape electoral politics in the United States.  Individual chapters demonstrate the importance of gender in understanding presidential elections, voter participation and turnout, voting choices, the participation of African American women, congressional elections, the support of political parties and

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.