Media Coverage of Female Candidates’ Traits in the 2020 Democratic Presidential Primary
Date
2021-11-29
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
Journal of Women, Politics and Policy
Abstract
The 2020 Democratic presidential primary featured more female candidates than any prior race of its kind, presenting a unique opportunity to analyze media coverage of women running for this distinctively masculine office. In this article, we explore themes in trait coverage for female candidates in 2020. Using a natural language processing (NLP) approach, we analyze a sample of print and online media coverage of the Democratic primary field just prior to the Iowa Caucus. We find that trait coverage largely emphasized warmth and competence, with a tendency to criticize female candidates for displaying insufficient warmth. Comparing white women to women of color, we find coverage of Harris, but not Gabbard, emphasizes racial and gender identifiers. The themes emerging from our trait analysis suggest women candidates continue to face obstacles in the form of gendered and sometimes racialized media coverage on their paths to the presidency.
Description
This is an Accepted Manuscript of an article published by Taylor & Francis in Journal of Women, Politics and Policy on 11/29/2021, available online: http://www.tandfonline.com/10.1080/1554477X.2022.2004846.
Keywords
female candidates, gender stereotypes, media, content analysis, traits
Citation
Erin Cassese, Meredith Conroy, Dhrumil Mehta & Franchesca Nestor (2022) Media Coverage of Female Candidates’ Traits in the 2020 Democratic Presidential Primary, Journal of Women, Politics & Policy, 43:1, 42-63, DOI: 10.1080/1554477X.2022.2004846