Candidates and Campaigns
Tracking Gender in the 2020 Presidential Election
by Kelly Dittmar
The introductory essay and digital timeline presented in Tracking Gender in the 2020 Presidential Election apply a gender and intersectional lens to key events during the 2020 presidential campaign. This resource provides clear examples of how presidential politics remain influenced by gender and race, specifically in: how candidates navigate campaigns; how candidates are perceived, evaluated, and treated by voters, media, and opponents; and how voters make electoral decisions.
Money Matters in the Fifty States
by Kira Sanbonmatsu and Claire Gothreau
This report is the second in the CAWP Women, Money, and Politics series. Analyzing 2001-2020 campaign contributions data, the report examines attorney general, secretary of state, and treasurer primary elections and general election contests for all statewide executive offices (other than governor and lt. governor). It identifies challenges and opportunities facing women as donors and candidates with analysis of candidate party and race/ethnicity. This is the companion study to our report on gubernatorial elections, The Money Hurdle. This report is made possible through a collaboration with OpenSecrets.
Measuring Success: Women in 2020 Legislative Elections
by Kelly Dittmar
Measuring women’s electoral success means placing 2020 outcomes into historical and contemporary context. That is the work done in this report, where CAWP breaks down 2020 congressional and state legislative data by gender, race, and party; puts this data into historical context, with specific comparisons to the 2018 election; analyzes women candidates’ paths to office and strategies for success; and looks ahead to what 2020 election outcomes mean for the future of women in American politics.
The Money Hurdle in the Race for Governor
by Kira Sanbonmatsu, Kathleen Rogers, and Claire Gothreau
This report is the first in a new CAWP series of reports on the role of money in politics. Analyzing 2000-2018 data from the National Institute on Money in Politics (NIMP), it examines primary and general election receipts and giving patterns by donor gender, identifying opportunities and challenges for women candidates and women donors. Its focus on gender and giving to gubernatorial candidates is unique.
Who Runs? The Masculine Advantage in Candidate Emergence
by Sarah Oliver, Towson University and Meredith Conroy, California State University, San Bernadino
University of Michigan Press, 2020, 168 pages
This book is part of the CAWP Series in Gender and American Politics published by the University of Michigan Press in association with CAWP. Meredith Conroy and Sarah Oliver focus on the candidate emergence process (recruitment, perceived qualifications, and ambition), and investigate the affects of individuals’ gender personality on these variables to improve theories of women’s underrepresentation in government.
Unfinished Business: Women Running in 2018 and Beyond
by Kelly Dittmar
Center for American Women and Politics, Eagleton Institute of Politics, Rutgers University–New Brunswick, 2019
Gender disparities in American politics were not upended in a single cycle, but the 2018 election marked sites of progress as well as persistent hurdles for women candidates. Evaluating the 2018 election in the context of both past and present offers key insights into the gendered terrain that candidates will navigate in 2020 and beyond. In this report, CAWP combines its unmatched data with a review of the latest research on gender, candidacy, and representation to analyze an unprecedented year for women in American politics, identify sites for both destruction and durability of barriers to women, and offer a guide for gender and intersectional dynamics to watch for in election 2020.
Gender and Elections: Shaping the Future of American Politics, 4th Edition
Eds. Susan J. Carroll, CAWP, Rutgers University and Richard L. Fox, Loyola Marymount University
Cambridge University Press, 2018 Fourth Edition, 319 pages
The fourth edition of Gender and Elections highlights the most important developments for women as voters and candidates in the 2012 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 participation of African American women, the support of political parties and women's organizations, candidate communications with voters, and state elections. Earlier editions (First Edition 2006, Second Edition 2010, 3rd edition 2013) provide similar analysis for the 2004, 2008 and 2012 elections.
Women Candidates in Election 2018: One Year from Election Day
by Kelly Dittmar, Ph.D.
Has there been a “surge” of women running for office after election 2016? With one year until the 2018 elections, we took a look at the numbers of women candidates to assess the degree to which media narratives about, and anecdotal evidence of, women’s heightened political engagement have translated into bids for office. In comparing the numbers of women running this cycle with the number at this point in previous cycles, we find that there are more women running for office in 2018, but that the increases in candidacies vary by level of office.
Women Running in 2017: Assessing NJ and VA State Legislative Elections
by Kelly Dittmar, Ph.D.
In our post-primary analysis, we find evidence that more Democratic women are running in 2017 state legislative races than in recent years, but many of them will have to defeat strong incumbents to win. This is particularly true in Virginia, a state where Republicans hold both legislative chambers. In New Jersey, where Democrats control the state legislature, there are fewer opportunities for Democratic challengers, and thus a less significant increase in the number of women nominees in 2017.
Finding Gender in Election 2016
by Kelly Dittmar, Ph.D.
Published by the Barbara Lee Family Foundation (BLFF) and the Center for American Women and Politics (CAWP)
In April 2015, BLFF and CAWP launched Presidential Gender Watch 2016, a project to track, analyze, and illuminate gender dynamics in the 2016 presidential election. With the help of expert scholars and practitioners, PGW worked for 21 months to further public understanding of how gender influences candidate strategy, voter engagement and expectations, media coverage, and electoral outcomes in campaigns for the nation’s highest executive office. This report outlines key ways in which gender was at play in the presidential election.