Redesigning Women? A Quantitative and Qualitative Approach to Candidate Strategy

• In Event: Emotions, Fashion, and Redefining Politics

Abstract

The 2018 and 2020 congressional election cycles were characterized by record numbers of women running for, and winning, seats in the United States Congress. Throughout the 2018 election cycle, popular media outlets discussed not only the number of women running for office but also how these women were campaigning. As one article describes, “in 2018 ‘badass’ female candidates” are “[forgetting] the pantsuit” and showing “strength after decades of being told how to look, sound and act” (Schnell 2018). This paper uses a combination of quantitative and qualitative methodological approaches to explore women candidates’ campaign advertising strategies, how these strategies changed over time, and the motivations behind these changes. Quantitative analysis of approximately 3000 video advertisements of candidates to the U.S. House of Representatives in 2014-2020 identifies adjustments in women candidates’ strategy on four dimensions of self-presentation: candidate dress, presentation of experience, strength, and parenthood. Interviews with “campaign insiders” (i.e., women candidates, consultants, and campaign staffers) provide an insiders’ perspective into the motivations behind adjustments to campaign strategy.

Author

• Cammie Jo Bolin, Georgetown University