Lady Problems: a Study on the Effect of Perceived Femininity When Evaluating Female Presidential Candidates
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University of Texas at Tyler Scholar Works at UT Tyler Communication Theses Communication Fall 12-10-2020 LADY PROBLEMS: A STUDY ON THE EFFECT OF PERCEIVED FEMININITY WHEN EVALUATING FEMALE PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATES Mackenzie O. Marquess University of Texas at Tyler Follow this and additional works at: https://scholarworks.uttyler.edu/comm_grad Part of the Critical and Cultural Studies Commons, Gender, Race, Sexuality, and Ethnicity in Communication Commons, Mass Communication Commons, and the Speech and Rhetorical Studies Commons Recommended Citation Marquess, Mackenzie O., "LADY PROBLEMS: A STUDY ON THE EFFECT OF PERCEIVED FEMININITY WHEN EVALUATING FEMALE PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATES" (2020). Communication Theses. Paper 2. http://hdl.handle.net/10950/2787 This Thesis is brought to you for free and open access by the Communication at Scholar Works at UT Tyler. It has been accepted for inclusion in Communication Theses by an authorized administrator of Scholar Works at UT Tyler. For more information, please contact [email protected]. LADY PROBLEMS 1 LADY PROBLEMS: A STUDY ON THE EFFECT OF PERCEIVED FEMININITY WHEN EVALUATING FEMALE PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATES Mackenzie O. Marquess A thesis submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Communication Department of Communication Jaclyn Marsh, Ph.D., Committee Chair College of Arts and Sciences LADY PROBLEMS 2 The University of Texas at Tyler Tyler, Texas This is to certify that the Master’s Thesis of MACKENZIE O. MARQUESS has been approved for the thesis requirement on November 12, 2020 for the Master of Communication degree LADY PROBLEMS 3 © Copyright 2020 by Mackenzie O. Marquess “Lady Problems: A Study on the Effect of Perceived Femininity when Evaluating Female Presidential Candidates” All rights reserved. LADY PROBLEMS 4 Abstract LADY PROBLEMS: A STUDY ON THE EFFECT OF PERCEIVED FEMININITY WHEN EVALUATING FEMALE PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATES Mackenzie O. Marquess Thesis Chair: Jaclyn Marsh, Ph.D. The University of Texas at Tyler November 2020 There is currently an observable gender gap associated with political leadership. Though many have tried, no woman has successfully campaigned for the presidency. Historically, media coverage of female candidates is vastly different from coverage of their male counterparts and it is well established that the media has significant control over public perception of candidates. This study examines media coverage of female candidates in an attempt to understand the rhetoric that consistently positions women as unelectable regardless of their experience or political prowess. This study analyzes post-debate commentary from the first Democratic presidential debate of the 2020 election beginning on June 26, 2019 using feminist critical discourse analysis. The findings do not indicate that traditionally feminine traits are seen as a good or bad quality but rather, they show how little these traits are acknowledged. While femininity was not discussed often, traditionally masculine traits were. LADY PROBLEMS 5 TABLE OF CONTENTS Chapter Page 1 LITERATURE REVIEW..................................................……......6 Gendered Coverage…………………………………...………7 Feminist Theory.……………………………………………....9 Sexist Language and Seats of Power.........…………………...15 Objectification Theory...……………………………………...18 The Novel Women.…………………………………………...21 Toughen Up........…………...………………………………...24 2 METHODS..........................................…………………………...29 3 RESULTS...........................................…………………………....32 Night One...…………………………………………………...32 Night Two...……………………………………………..........35 4 DISCUSSION........…………………….............................……....40 Gender Disparities........…………...……………………..…...47 Limitations and Futures Directions……….…………….........51 5 CONCLUSIONS...................................……………………….....53 References......................................................................................55 Appendix: Transcripts....................................................................66 LADY PROBLEMS 6 CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION AND LITERATURE REVIEW Over time, the media has changed some aspects of the way it treats female candidates, but as races for higher offices are examined, gender-based patterns of coverage have continued to emerge (Smith, 1997). Female candidates for all different levels of office have been found to receive less media coverage about policy issues than their male counterparts and instead, reporters focus on more personal details of female candidates including family life and attire (Watson & Gordon, 2002). This is particularly important to note because previous findings argue that media headlines and coverage drastically influence the perception, and thus votes, of citizens. Readers are drawn to and respond more to headlines and articles about the issues of a campaign rather than other details (Geer & Kahn, 1993). Although there have been several prominent female candidates for president up to this point, only one has received a major-party nomination, Hillary Clinton. Most major news outlets predicted the United States would see its first female president in 2016, however, it has yet to happen. Countless news sources predicted a Clinton presidency even up through the week of the election (Agiesta, 2016; Goldmacher et al., 2016; Kettle, 2016; Montanaro, 2016; Sosnik, 2016). During the lead-up to the 2020 campaign, Elizabeth Warren was a prominent candidate for the presidency and the public was once again navigating through what it means to have a female contender for the presidency. Whether or not she would have received the Democratic Party’s nomination seemed highly based on her electability. Joe Biden, the eventual nominee, chose Kamala Harris as his Vice Presidential nominee. Media outlets questioned Harris’ electability often when she was a candidate for president, due to her being a woman and being Black (Zhou, 2019), but now being considered for Vice President (VP), her electability was no longer an area of concern in the same light. In fact, Harris was seen as a good VP pick by Biden that brought LADY PROBLEMS 7 diversity and expertise in areas that he lacks (Burns & Glueck, 2020). A simple demotion in the chain of command made Harris an acceptable politician, but somehow when evaluated for president, she is simply unelectable, unpresidential. The logic behind these statements is flawed, as Biden is well into his seventies and one of the oldest presidential nominees. This means the likelihood of Kamala Harris becoming president from VP is higher than it has been for VP candidates in the past. The media comments on the issue of electability frequently, but it seems to most often impact female candidates for president by hurting their polling numbers, swaying undecided voters, and ultimately making them lose the race, often in the primaries (Chait, 2019; Enten, 2019). Gendered Coverage It is important to closely examine gender biases and gendered language used to describe candidates who display femininity. These biases are crucial because, “Gender biases, if evident in press coverage, are important because they can have electoral consequences” (Caroll & Olson, 2015, p. 316). Electoral consequences, in the case of US history, refer to the inability of female candidates to be elected to the office of the presidency. Differences in election coverage based on gender “can shape public perceptions and, ultimately, influence the fate of a candidate’s campaign” (Heldman et al., 2005; Caroll & Olson, 2015, p. 317). The change in coverage is typically displayed by implicit, and sometimes explicit, suggestions that women are not serious candidates, especially when compared to men. This is often because gender bias stemming from gender stereotypes are reflected in reporting habits (Caroll & Olson, 2015). James Devitt (1999) studied the media’s coverage of female candidates and found that newspaper readers were more likely to come across a story about a female candidate’s personal life, appearance, or personality than their male counterparts at a rate of 16.9% to 12.3%. Incumbent female candidates for office LADY PROBLEMS 8 were not an exception to the findings. Reporters were also more likely to focus on a male candidate’s prior experience in office and their policy positions, at 31.2% of the time, than female candidate’s experience, 27.4% of the time (Devitt, 1999). Because the media has been shown to gender coverage of female candidates on multiple occasions, the way they are gendered and whether or not it may persuade voters for or against candidates ought to be considered (Carrol & Olson, 2005; Heldman et al., 2005; Kahn, 1992; Miller & Peake, 2013). Gendered coverage includes the focus on elements of the female candidate’s life that are seemingly unrelated to their bid for the presidency. It distracts from issues that voters would typically find important and could influence the perceived electability of these candidates. In addition to female candidates receiving gendered coverage, there have also been several instances of male presidential candidates’ coverage focusing on feminine traits they may possess. This occurrence was seen often throughout the 2016 election. On multiple occasions, male candidates were criticized and praised, for certain feminine traits they possessed. When criticized for feminine traits, these candidates took over the news cycle and were ridiculed for the trait which they displayed. In sharp contrast to this, men who displayed feminine traits that were seen