American Women and Politics in the Media: A Review Essay

Abstract

The study of women and politics in the media is a relatively young subfield, blessed with scholarship from the fields of communications, cultural studies, history, sociology and political science. Members of these fields use methodologies—such as semiotics, qualitative analysis, and quantitative content analysis—to examine the content of communication about women and politics in news and advertising. Studies of the impact of messages use polls, experiments, and focus groups. Scholars draw primarily upon theories of framing (Entman 1993), hegemony (Gramsci 1971), and organizational structures (Epstein 1973; Sigal 1973) to explain why news content looks the way it does. Although most research focuses on content rather than causes and consequences, some studies are putting the pieces together to explain how efforts of groups and individuals influence coverage of women and politics and how audiences react to those messages.

Media-driven Men and Media-critical Women? An Empirical Study of Gender and MPs’ Relationships with the Media in Norway and Sweden

“…This raises the question whether female politicians tend to be more skeptical towards becoming a source of news, or whether the media treat female politicians differently than male politicians. Not only are women often under-represented in the news, international research has also shown that female politicians are often treated differently by the media than their male colleagues Everitt, 2000, 2003;Kahn, 1992Kahn, , 1993Kahn, , 1994aKahn, , 1994bKahn, , 1996Larson, 2001). For example, female politicians are often primed to take up 'softer' issues, such as welfare and policies related to children and family.…”

Deconstructing the Myth of the Monolithic Male Athlete: A Qualitative Study of Men’s Participation in Athletics

“…The influence of athletics enters a number of discourses including education (e.g., school administrations' oversight of compliance with Title IX), consumer behavior (e.g., consumers' purchases of recreational and athletic equipment), and politics (e.g., during the 1996 and 2000 US Presidential campaigns, massive political strategies were aimed at winning the vote of the soccer mom, Carroll 1999; Glowka and Lester 1997;Larson 2001). Athletics at all levels remain increasingly popular, even as corruption scandals disillusion fans and institutions of higher education are held accountable for (often egregious) recruiting violations (Thelin and Wiseman 1989).…”

Gender stereotypes may not influence the choice of female leaders: Experimental evidence from a crisis framed as social or economic during the COVID‐19 pandemic

“…This impression led to an increased call for more female leadership during the health crisis (Katz, 2021; PAHO, 2021; UN Women, 2020). Past research illustrated that media reports are often biased when depicting female and male politicians (Larson, 2001), often endorsing traditional gender stereotypes (see also Atkeson & Krebs, 2008; Kittilson & Fridkin, 2008; Hayek & Russmann, 2020).…”