Gender and Agendas on the Campaign Trail
By Carrie Resnick
Woodrow Wilson Undergraduate Research Fellowship
Johns Hopkins University
May 13th, 2015
Abstract:
This paper provides a detailed account of how women’s issues and education played in 2014
U.S. gubernatorial races. I researched how the gender of candidates and of their opponents
affected the frequency and manner in which women’s issues were mentioned in campaign
advertisements and online videos posted on YouTube. I also look at how discussion of education,
a traditionally feminine issue, varied by gender. Focusing on the races in Massachusetts, Rhode
Island, Texas, Wisconsin, Georgia, Florida, and Maryland, I found that in this sample female
candidates are most likely to talk about women’s issues, and Republican men with female
opponents are more likely to mention women’s issues than those with male opponents.
Additionally, Democratic men discuss women’s issues more than Republican men. However,
these generalities do not hold up over every race. In terms of how women’s issues are used,
women alone discuss women’s history and enthusiasm for women’s power and abilities. Only
Democratic candidates of both genders bring up women’s issues when attacking their opponents
and thus, only Republican candidates mention them in response to attacks. In terms of education,
Democratic men bring up education the most of any candidate category.
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Introduction
During Rep. Pat Schoeder’s 1988 presidential campaign, reporters asked her if she was
“running as a woman” in the race. Schoeder replied, “Do I have a choice?” Candidates cannot
choose to be whichever gender would be most favorable to their campaign; however, they can
choose how often and in what way to discuss issues linked to gender, deciding to either prime
their gender stereotypes or contrast them. In this paper, I examine how candidates for governor
in 2014 discuss women’s issues and education in campaign videos depending on their gender and
their opponent’s gender.
Literature Review: Issues in Campaigns
One function of a political campaign is to inform voters of candidates’ issue priorities.
Voters evaluate candidates’ competency on various issues based on gender stereotyping (Lee
2014). Generally, women are stereotyped as compassionate, sensitive, family-focused caretakers
and associated with the private domain of the family and the home (Meeks 2012; Lawless 2004).
Part of gender stereotyping is the use of heuristics, or mental shortcuts. Relying on heuristics,
voters apply their stereotypes of women to female candidates and of men to male candidates
(Lawless 2004). Stereotyped as sympathetic caretakers, female candidates are perceived as more
competent on education, healthcare, social welfare, poverty, the environment, and women’s
health (Meeks 2012; Herrnson, Lay, and Stokes, 2003; Shames 2008). These issues are
commonly referred to as “feminine issues” because of their association with women and female
stereotypes (Shames 2008). Similarly, “masculine issues” are based on the stereotypes of men
breadwinners, providers, and defenders with aggressive traits. As such, military issues,
economics, business, agriculture and transportation are frequently thought of as masculine issues
(Meeks 2012; Shames 2008; Alexander and Andersen 1993; Lawless 2004). Because of gender
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stereotyping, voters are predisposed to vote for or against female candidates depending on what
issues are salient during any given election. Female candidates may be less likely to win
elections when masculine issues are prominent during the campaign (Lawless 2004). Voters are
especially likely to rely on gender stereotyping when evaluating candidates about whom they
have little or no information (Alexander and Andersen 1993).
Feminine issues differ from “women’s issues,” which are issues that differentially affect
women. Women’s issues exclusively or primarily impact women, or at least are thought to in
public debate (Niven and Zilber 2001). Some women’s issues are abortion, sexual harassment,
rape, domestic violence, and the gender wage gap (Dolan 2008). Women’s issues do not have to
consistently or exclusively fit this categorization, and often the specifics of what is considered a
women’s issue varies between races. For example, men are also victims of rape and are impacted
by policy on rape. Rape is classified as a women’s issue because most victims of rape are women
and because most of the public dialogue on rape focuses on women. A candidate could
specifically talk about rape of men, in which case it would not be considered a women’s issue
under this definition. Women’s issues can also fit into other categories at the same time.
Abortion, for example, is both a women’s issue and a religious issue (Paolino 1995). Women’s
issues are feminine issues, as female candidates are stereotyped to be more adept at handling
issues relating to women (Meeks 2012). However, Huddy and Terkildsen found that women
were viewed as more competent regarding women’s issues (in their study, abortion and the wage
gap) simply because they were women, not because participants thought they possessed certain
traits because of their gender (2001). What is considered a women’s issue is historically
contingent and changes over time (Hill and Chappell 2006).
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Stereotypes influence how campaigns determine their strategies (Kahn 1996) A major
part of campaign strategy relates to campaign advertisements. Women have been found to rely
on all kinds of advertising more than men (Benze and Declercq 1985). In advertisements,
candidates have full control over their presentation (Robertson and Anderson 2004). This control
is especially important for female candidates because of how women are typically covered by the
media. Media coverage often damages women’s credibility with voters (Niven and Zilber 2001).
Men get more news coverage relating to issues than women do (Serini, Powers, and Johnson
1998). Specifically, men running against women get more coverage on women’s issues (Fowler
and Lawless 2009). In races with female candidates, news coverage focuses more on traits than
issues overall, as compared to races with only male candidates (Dunaway, Lawrence, Rose,
Weber 2013). In the 2010 gubernatorial races, newspaper coverage was about evenly split
between issues and character traits, with a slight emphasize on traits; however, 60% of
candidate’s advertisements were about issues, as was 73% of debate discussion, revealing the
media’s bias towards trait coverage (Benoit et al 2013).
Newspaper coverage content also varies by office. In a study of four women who ran for
both executive and legislative offices between 1999 and 2008, Lindsey Meeks found that all of
these candidates received more masculine issue coverage when running for executive office than
legislative office. Only two of the candidates received more feminine issue coverage when
running for executive office. Coverage of male traits increased for all candidates when running
for executive office, but female trait coverage only increased for three of the four (2012).
Additionally, the media often exaggerates female legislators’ focus on women’s issues. In
campaign advertisements, candidates control the content and image presentation, allowing them
to express exactly what they want voters to know about them and counter unbalanced newspaper
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coverage. Candidates can also communicate directly with voters through the Internet (Niven and
Zilber 2001).
Issues play an important role in political campaigns. Issues in political campaigns matter
not only because the indicate what the candidate will focus on if he or she gets elected to hold
office, but also because of their function within the campaign itself of informing and persuading
voters. In television advertisements, candidates primarily mention issues but do not take stances
on them (Benze and Declercq 1985). Candidates use advertisements to indicate their issue
priorities, not their positions on these issues (Dolan 2008). In this way, issues on campaigns
serve an agenda setting function (Kahn 1993). Though agenda setting, campaigns can lead voters
to focus more on certain issues than others. Setting issues on the agenda primes them for the
voters, who then give these issues more consideration when determining for whom to vote.
Campaigns can prime issues with specific constituencies in mind, such as female voters. When
the gender gap has played a significant role in deciding the outcome of past elections,
Democratic candidates tend to prime women’s issues, while Republican candidates avoid them
in order to prevent priming. Female candidates are especially able to priming women’s issues
because of their own gender (Schaffner 2005).
Candidates must think strategically about what issues to discuss during their campaigns
in order to balance the priming capacity of issues and their association with stereotypes.
Candidates must consider whether they want to use positive gender stereotypes to their benefit or
fight negative ones, risking priming voters on the issues that benefit their opponents, or figure
out a way to do both. Female candidates are often encouraged to use their association with
feminine issues to their advantage (Barbara Lee Family Foundation 2014). When utilizing
positive advertising, both women and men perform better when they run gender congruent
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campaigns. Voters have an easier time evaluating candidates based on gender heuristics if the
candidates discuss issues that are associated with their gender (Lee 2014). Voters are more likely
to remember advertisements that are in line with their gender heuristics and can fit into their
existing schemas on gender (Shames 2008). Women perform better in elections when they
emphasize feminine issues, since voters associate these issues positively with female candidates
(Herrnson, Lay, and Stokes 2003). Emphasizing women’s issues helps both male and female
Democrats by swaying the votes of women (Schaffner 2005). Women voters are more likely to
support women candidates when women’s issues are salient and when they see the female
candidate as a qualified representative for group experiences. The prominence of women’s issues
particularly matters for women voters when considering female candidates because voters
perceive members from the same group as capable of representing the shared experiences of the
group (Paolino 1995).
Research has examined how female and male candidates actually use feminine and
masculine issues in their campaigns. Looking at Senate races, Kahn found that women were
more likely to focus on social issues, such as education and healthcare, in advertisements, and
men focused more on economic issues, in line with expectations based on gender stereotyping
(1993). Not all studies have found such clear divisions. Robertson et al. found that female
candidates for senator and governor were significantly more likely to mention taxes in
advertisements than men were and that men were more likely to mention welfare reform.
Welfare reform could be either a social, and thus, feminine, issue, or a budget, and thus
masculine issue; either way, taxes are definitely an economic, masculine issue (1999). Dolan
looked at the content of congressional campaign websites in order to determine issue agendas.
She found that men who ran against women were less likely to mention women’s issues,
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especially abortion, than men who ran against men (2008). Looking at the websites of members
of Congress, not candidates, Niven and Zilber found that women’s issues were not a priority for
any candidates, mentioned very infrequently, and that women’s issues were not the primary issue
of any men and of most women. Women do mention women’s issues on their websites more than
men do (2001).
Research Questions
As discussed above, much research has been done on how candidates of different genders
utilize “feminine” and “masculine” issues, but not much has specifically looked at how
candidates address “women’s issues.” I wanted to see how women’s issues fit into candidates’
campaign agendas and public discussion depending on the gender of the candidate and of their
opponent. Candidates have the choice to either prime issues favoring them and their gender’s
stereotypes or to focus on issues contrasting their stereotypes in order to combat them, already
able to rely on favorable perception on other issues because of stereotyping. Beyond campaign
strategies, gender on its own also plays into how voters perceive candidates on certain issues.
Huddy and Terkildsen found that women were viewed as more competent than men when
dealing with women’s issues not because of any priming or campaigning affects but because of
their gender alone. Given all of these considerations, I researched how often women’s issues
came up in gubernatorial races depending on the gender of the candidates and how candidates
used women’s issues within their races. I looked specifically at whether Democratic women or
men discussed women’s issues more often, and whether Republican men running against women
mentioned them more than Republican men running against men. Additionally, I studied how
gender played into the discussion of a traditional feminine issue, education. In order to gauge
how often candidates discussed women’s issues and education, I analyzed videos posted on their
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campaign YouTube channels. I expected that female candidates would discuss women’s issues
more than male candidates, but that male candidates with female opponents would discuss
women’s issues more than male candidates running against men, as the female candidates will
have made women’s issues priorities in their races. I also expected that women would discuss
education more than men, as in line with the past literature on feminine issues.
Methods
In order to get a sense of campaign agendas, I examined the videos posted on candidates’
YouTube pages. Most candidates running for office in 2014 have campaign YouTube channels.
On these pages, most campaigns share television advertisements, online advertisements, other
videos created by the campaign, and clippings from television news stories. Because of this
diversity of content, YouTube channels provide more insight into campaign agendas and
strategies than only looking at television advertisements, as most research on campaign issues
does. Looking at YouTube videos combines the strategies of researchers examining campaign
advertisements and those looking at the usage of Internet platforms, such as campaign websites.
The reposting of news videos by campaigns on YouTube especially signifies what issues
campaigns wish to emphasize. The content of the news videos reposted by campaigns indicate
which issues the campaigns appreciate news coverage on and the quantity of these videos further
shows how important these issues are to the campaign. For example, Wendy Davis, the female
Democratic candidate for Governor in Texas, posted eleven videos of news stories covering the
lack of transparency regarding chemical storage locations in Texas, making up 9 percent of her
total videos. However, chemical storage transparency was never mentioned in any of the
advertisements created by the campaign itself. Looking at only official advertisements would
indicate that chemical storage transparency was not on the agenda of the Davis campaign, but the
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content on the campaign YouTube channel shows otherwise. Thus, including all videos posted
by campaigns on YouTube allows for a broader study of campaign agendas.
On the other hand, YouTube is not too broad as to get an accurate depiction of campaign
agendas, as the study of other online media forms may have been. Most campaigns in 2014 also
had Twitter accounts and Facebook pages, and the content on these pages could have been
studied as well to determined campaign agendas. However, posting something on Twitter or
Facebook requires almost no time or effort, and creating the content for these pages does not cost
any money (expect possibly to pay the staffer, who is also presumably being paid to do other
tasks on the campaign). It is also much easier and more common to repost the tweets of other
Twitter users. It takes more time and energy to post a video onto YouTube. Much of the content
posted by the campaigns on YouTube was also created by the campaign. Creating a video takes
more time and resources than writing a tweet or a Facebook post. Even for news videos that were
not created by the campaign itself, the campaign still must upload and publish the video itself,
whereas on Twitter content by other users can be retweeted with the push of one button. Overall,
the content on YouTube is created and posted more deliberately than the content on Twitter,
Facebook, and other social media. The content on YouTube represents what the campaign is
willing to exert effort and resources to highlight.
I did content analysis of the videos posted on the selected candidates’ YouTube channels,
coding every issue mentioned. Women’s issues were first coded separately by issue and then
grouped together. For example, abortion was initially coded as “abortion” and then counted as a
women’s issues. For this coding, I used Niven and Zilber’s definition of women’s issues as those
that exclusively or primarily affect women in combination with Dolan’s explanation that
women’s issues affect women differentially than men (2001, 2008). Table 1 below shows all of
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the women’s issues brought up in the campaigns and by which candidates. Several categories
within the women’s issue group include references are not related to policy. These are women’s
history and women’s empowerment. Women’s issue includes any mentions by the candidates of
historical women or of the historical nature of their race, as several of these candidates would
have been the first female governor of their state. Women’s empowerment refers to any positive
statement about women and women’s capabilities without any specific link to a policy issue.
This includes candidates saying that women could do anything or bringing up affirmative quotes
about women, and both men and women said things that fell into this category. For example,
Martha Coakley frequently cited a plaque her father had given her that said “sometimes the best
man for the job is a woman,” which was included in the category of women’s empowerment.
Though the mentions in these categories are not technically referring to issues, they are
indicative of how gender played in the campaigns of candidates of both genders.
Table 1: All Women's Issues and Candidates
Issue
Mentioned by Which Candidates
Abortion
Birth control
Abbott (R, TX), Davis (D, TX), Walker (R, WI), Coakley (D, MA), Baker
(D, MA), Brown (D, MD), Hogan (R, MD), Crist (D, FL)
Coakley (D, MA), Hogan (R, MD)
Breast cancer
Hogan (R, MD)
Domestic Violence
Gender equality
Abbott (R, TX), Raimondo (D, RI), Walker (R, WI), Coakley (D, MA),
Baker (D, MA), Brown (D, MD), Hogan (R, MD), Scott (R, FL)
Davis (D, TX), Raimondo (D, RI), Walker (R, WI), Coakley (D, MA),
Baker (D, MA), Crist (D, FL)
Davis (D, TX), Coakley (D, MA)
Human trafficking
Abbott (R, TX), Coakley (D, MA)
Rape
Davis (D, TX), Abbott (R, TX), Hogan (R, MD), Crist (D, FL)
Equal Pay
Women in business Davis (D, TX), Abbott (R, TX), Walker (R, WI)
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Women's
Davis (D, TX), Raimondo (D, RI), Coakley (D, MA)
Empowerment
Women's
Davis (D, TX), Abbott (R, TX), Coakley (D, MA), Hogan (R, MD), Crist
(D, FL)
healthcare
Women's history
Raimondo (D, RI), Coakley (D, MA)
Another major category is almost every campaign was the economy. I included any
discussion of jobs, unemployment, and the economy in general in this category. I coded
discussion of taxes and state budgets separately from economy. Taxes and state budgets were
most frequently brought up in discussion of the size and role of the government, not the state of
the economy. Any mention of deficits and state debt was coded with budgets. Any mention of
funding particular policies was coded with that policy issue; for example, education funding was
coded as education, though it was often linked to the state budget. References to corruption and
other ethical issues were all coded within the category of ethics.
Candidates do not only discuss issues in their videos. I created the several categories to
code non-issues: biography, campaign, and get out the vote. Biography was used when a
candidate discussed their past without reference to their record or how their past shaped their
policy priorities. This included many videos about a candidate’s childhood, family, and college
or military experience. Campaign videos were those with no policy implications and only
relevant in the context of the campaign. This included any horse race coverage, such as reports of
how candidates were polling, and general statements about how great the state or the candidates’
supporters are. Miscellaneous videos were also included in campaign, as long as they served a
purpose for the campaign but did not relate to any policy. For example, Charlie Crist and Rick
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Scott in Florida both posted videos wishing their supporters happy holidays on Thanksgiving and
Christmas and Mother’s Day and Father’s Day, respectively. These did not indicate either
candidates’ opinions on holidays and were just friendly messages to supporters, placing them in
the campaign category. Get out the vote included videos encouraging people to vote. Concerns
about voting rights and voting policy were coded separated under the category of voting.
Campaign, biography, and get out the vote mentions were not included in the final issue
mentions count.
Candidate selection
Plenty of research has shown that incumbency makes a different in the content and
coverage of campaigns (Dolan 2014, Robertson and Anderson 2004, Schaffner 2005). As I am
only interested in studying the affects on gender on campaign agendas, not the affects of
incumbency, I decided only to include non-incumbent female candidates in the study. In 2014,
four out of five non-incumbent female candidates had YouTube channels. These candidates were
Martha Coakley (D, Massachusetts), Gina Raimondo (D, Rhode Island), Wendy Davis (D,
Texas), and Mary Burke (D, Wisconsin). The one woman who did not have a YouTube channel
was Susan Wismer, the Democratic candidate for Governor in South Dakota. Wismer’s
campaign was the least high profile of the five campaigns, and she ultimately lost her race by 45
points.
Past research also shows the significance of political party on campaigns (Dolan 2014,
Schaffner 2005). Because Coakley, Raimondo, Davis, and Burke are all Democrats, I decided to
only compare these campaigns to races where the Democratic male was not the incumbent as
well. The Democratic male candidates I included were Jason Carter (Georgia), Anthony Brown
(Maryland), and Charlie Crist (Florida). These candidates were selected out of the group of non-
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incumbent males because they had YouTube pages, as did their opponents, and they used their
pages to post both television advertisements, original content, and news clippings.
Findings: Women’s Issues
In general, women are more likely to mention women’s issues than Democratic men and
than Republican men, both those running against women and running against men, based on the
content of their YouTube channels. As seen in Chart 1 below, Democratic women talk about
women’s issues more than men, Democratic men bring them up more than Republican men, and
Republican men with female opponents talk about them more than Republican men with male
opponents. 24.11% of all issue mentions made by female candidates were in reference to
women’s issues, as were 12.08% of Democratic male issue mentions, 8.63% of issue mentions
by Republican men with female opponents, and 2.46% for Republican men with male
candidates.
Figure 1: Percentage of All Issue Mentions That Were Women's Issues by Candidate Type
30.00%
25.00%
24.11%
20.00%
15.00%
12.08%
8.63%
10.00%
5.00%
2.46%
0.00%
Democratic
Female
Candidates
Democratic
Republican
Republican
Male Candidates Male Candidates Male Candidates
Running AgainstRunning Against
Women
Men
This varies in each specific race. In three of the four races with female candidates, the
woman mentioned women’s issues more than the man. Most closely adhering to the average was
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the Texas race. 28% of issues mentioned by Wendy Davis were women’s issues, close to the
24% average, and 8% of Greg Abbott’s issue mentions were women’s issues, the same as the
average. However, in Wisconsin, Mary Burke never mentioned women’s issue, but they made
up 9% of issue mentions of her male opponent, Scott Walker. One Democratic man, Charlie
Crist, mentioned women’s issues more than every other candidate except for one female
candidate. One Republican man who was running against another man, Larry Hogan, mentioned
women’s issues more than most Republicans running against women and more than most
Democratic men. Table 3 shows the breakdown by race and by candidate. For the figures in both
of these tables, only videos posted during the general election were included for male candidates
who were running in competitive primaries.
Figure 2: Percentage of Women's Issue Mentions by Candidate
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These numbers do not tell the full story of women’s issues in 2014 gubernatorial
elections. Candidates brought up women’s issues in a variety of ways and contexts. As seen in
Table 1in the Methods section, most issues were mentioned by both men and women, Democrats
and Republicans, with no clear pattern or bias forming in any of the policy-related issue
categories. The subjects without direct policy implications, women’s empowerment and
women’s history, were mentioned exclusively by female candidates. Candidates mentioned
women’s issues when outlining their agendas and explaining their records and their biographies.
They also used women’s issues to attack their opponents and to respond to attacks. Female
candidates alone referenced women in an enthusiastic, non-policy context. The usage of
women’s issues also varied by party, not only by gender. Democratic candidates alone attacked
their opponents based on women’s issues. 4 of the 5 Democrats who brought up women’s issues
at all used them to attack their opponent. As such, only Republicans mentioned women’s issues
in response to attacks, which 3 of the 5 Republicans discussing women’s issues did. In the
following sections, I outline how women’s issues were used by every candidate, unpacking these
categories further through specific examples.
Texas
State Senator Wendy Davis was the Democratic candidate for governor in Texas. Davis’s
candidacy was closely linked to women’s issues, as she rose to national prominence because of
her 13-hour filibuster of a strict abortion restriction law. Her opponent was Attorney General
Greg Abbott, a pro-life conservative who was seen as the natural successor to incumbent
Governor Rick Perry. Both candidates faced only marginal opposition in their primaries and won
with large majorities. A Democrat has not won statewide office in Texas since 1994, when Ann
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Richards became governor. The race was considered a safe Republican seat by the New York
Times and Larry J. Sabato’s Crystal Ball. Ultimately, Abbott won, 59.3% to 38.9% (New York
Times 2014).
Davis posted 104 videos in total on YouTube, 32 of which included mentions of
women’s issues. Women’s issues were mentioned 37 times within these videos, making up 28%
of her total issue mentions. Davis was the only candidate for whom one women’s issue on its
own made up a significant amount of issue mentions. Rape made up a full 15% of all issues
mentioned by Davis. The other women’s issues discussed by Davis were abortion (6% of all
issue mentions), equal pay (3%), women’s empowerment (1.52%), gender equality, women’s
healthcare, and women in business (.76% each). Many of Davis’s videos focused exclusively on
women’s issues.
Davis used women’s issues in videos to both attack her opponent’s record and to explain
her own record and biography. Most of the mentions of rape were in reference to a ruling Abbott
made against a rape victim while on the Texas Supreme Court. The victim was raped by a
traveling vacuum salesman who was also a sexual predator on probation This victim’s story was
the topic of Davis’s first television advertisement, “A Texas Story,” released August 7th, 2014.
According to the advertisement, the victim was raped by a traveling vacuum salesman who was
not given a background check by the Kirby vacuum company, which would have revealed him to
be a sexual predator on probation. Abbott was in the court minority in his belief that the
company was not responsible for performing a background check on its employees and that the
rape victim should not be able to sue Kirby. The Davis campaign posted “A Texas Story” to the
YouTube channel, as well as many videos of news coverage of the advertisement. Through this
story, the Davis campaign used rape to present an image of Abbott as an opponent of victims,
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especially female victims of rape and sexual assault. The campaign also drew contrasts between
Abbott’s record on rape and Davis’s record as an advocate for rape kit testing. The Davis
campaign also used women’s issues to attack Abbott by posting two videos with clips of an
Abbott strategist calling rape and incest in terms of abortion “minor issues” (“Abbott Strategist
Defends His Candidate's Abortion Position Calling Rape & Incest "Minor Issues," and “Wendy
Davis Calls on Abbott to "Disavow" Remarks Calling Rape and Incest "Minor Issues").
Aside from these two videos, every video mentioning abortion promoted Davis’s record
and biography, either through discussion of her filibuster or of her own abortions. The campaign
released several videos on the one-year anniversary of the filibuster looking back on it and also
posted news coverage of stories about women who had watched the filibuster. On September 2nd,
2014, two months before Election Day, Davis released a memoir, Forgetting To Be Afraid. In the
memoir, Davis revealed publically for the first time that she had two abortions, one because of an
ectopic pregnancy and one because of a severe brain abnormality that would have caused the
baby to be born in a unchangeable vegetative state. Several videos on the YouTube channel
focus on the memoir and Davis’s own abortions, using women’s issues to Davis as personal and
relatable and to explain her biography. The rest of the women’s issues mentions were in
reference to Davis’s agenda or explaining why voters support her. 10 videos mentioned women’s
issues as part of Davis’s agenda without also attacking Abbott or discussing Davis’s record.
These videos did not go into much detail on her stances or plans.
Abbott posted fewer videos than Davis, with a total of 81. 9 of his videos, making up
11% total, include women’s issues. Women’s issues were mentioned 10 times overall, 8% of all
issues mentions. Abbott did not focus on any women’s issues more than others, as Davis did with
rape and, to a lesser extent, abortion. The women’s issues included in his YouTube videos are
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abortion (2.5% of all issue mentions), human trafficking (2.5%), rape, abortion, women’s
healthcare, domestic violence, and women in business (.8% each). Abbott uses women’s issues
in his videos primarily to express his agenda. As such, women’s issues were usually mentioned
in videos alongside other issues. Only three videos focus on women’s issues exclusively. One of
these explains Abbott’s goal to help women succeed in business. While this video goes into some
detail about how he plans to do this, it is mostly focused on stating his focus on women in
business as an issue on his agenda. The second, “Claire’s Story,” is a personal story, told straight
into the camera, of a woman who survived a late-term abortion. After telling her story, Claire
says that she is grateful for Abbott’s position on abortion, because it protects other innocent
lives. Through this video, the Abbott campaign expresses Abbott’s position on abortion in detail
and provides support for this position. The final women-centered video highlights Abbott’s
record on human trafficking by showing Leticia van de Putte, the Democratic candidate for
Lieutenant Governor, thanking Abbott for his leadership on the issue. Notably, Abbott does not
attack Davis through women’s issues, nor does he use any biographical stories to highlight
women’s issues. Davis not only mentions women’s issues more frequently than Abbott, but she
also uses women’s issues in a greater variety of ways within her videos.
Rhode Island
State Treasurer Gina Raimondo won the Democratic nomination for Governor following
a competitive three-way race against two male candidates, in which Raimondo won 42.1% of the
vote. Cranston Mayor Allan Fung won the Republican nomination for Governor, receiving
54.9% of the vote against another male candidate (State of Rhode Island Election Results 2014).
Raimondo won the general election with 40.8% of the vote to Fung’s 36.6% and Robert Healey’s
21.4% (The New York Times 2014). Raimondo was the only one of the female candidates
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examined here to win her race. Larry Sabato saw the race as leaning Democratic, and the New
York Times labeled it a tossup (Sabato does not rate races as tossups, which is why I included
both sources here). As Treasurer, Raimondo led a controversial overhaul of the state pension
system, putting public employees and unions in opposition to Raimondo. Fung had also reformed
the pension system in Cranston, though this was less high-profile and impactful as Raimondo’s
statewide action (Maher and Calvert, 2014). As a protest, many general election voters cast their
ballots for Robert Healey, the Moderate Party candidate who only spent $35 on his entire
campaign. Healey ran an unconventional campaign; for example, hand-painting his billboards on
the sides of his friends home, and he did not have a YouTube channel (Fuller 2014). Thus, I only
focus on the YouTube channels of the two major party candidates in this race.
Raimondo posted 33 videos on YouTube, 3 of which mentioned women’s issues, making
up 9% of all videos. Women’s issues were mentioned 5 times, making up 10.64% of all issue
mentions. Raimondo mentioned most women’s issues only once: women’s empowerment,
women’s history, and equal pay were each mentioned one time for a total of 2.13% of the issue
mentions each. Raimondo brought up domestic violence twice, totaling 4.26% of all issue
mentions. Raimondo uses women’s issues to inspire enthusiasm for her campaign, beyond
simply creating support for her agenda. In her first video, featuring clips from a campaign
speech, she points out that she would be the first female governor of Rhode Island. In this video,
she also encourages people to support her candidacy in honor of their mothers, grandmothers,
and daughters, who are the future. These statements were coded as women’s history and
women’s empowerment, as they are explicitly drawing on women’s issues and priming women’s
voters, though they do not refer to any specific policy issues. In a different video, women’s
issues are referenced in policy and agenda terms. In her endorsement of Raimondo, First Lady
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Michelle Obama brings up equal pay and domestic violence as reasons for support Raimondo.
Only one of the three videos focuses exclusively on a woman’s issue and uses women’s issues to
promote Raimondo’s record. This video, called “Saved Twice,” features a woman telling her
story of domestic violence and how Raimondo’s actions as Treasurer helped her escape abuse
and rebuild her life. Overall, Raimondo used women’s issues in a variety of ways, but they were
not a major aspect of her campaign. However, she did mention them more than her opponent.
Allan Fung posted no videos mentioning women’s issues at all, neither while running in the
Republican primary nor while running against Raimondo in the general election.
Wisconsin
The gubernatorial campaign in Wisconsin was different from the other three races with
female candidates, in that it was not an open seat. Republican Governor Scott Walker ran for
reelection in 2014. His Democratic opponent was Mary Burke, the former state Commerce
Secretary and executive at Trek Bicycle, her family’s company. This race was also unique in
how the candidates discussed women’s issues. Mary Burke, the female Democratic candidate,
did not mention women’s issues once in her 20 YouTube videos. She focused almost exclusively
on the economy, making up 68% of all issue mentions. Aside from the economy, she only
mentioned three others issues: education, ethics, and taxes. Walker won the election with 52.3%
of the vote to Burke’s 46.6% (The New York Times 2014). The race was considered a tossup by
the New York Times and to be leaning Republican by Larry Sabato.
On the other hand, Walker mentioned women’s issues in 3 of his 34 YouTube videos.
About 8.70% of all issue mentions were women’s issues. Walker split his mentions evenly
between four women’s issues: domestic violence, abortion, equal pay, and women in business,
each comprising 2.17% of all issue mentions. Walker discusses these issues in order to defend
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his record, clarify his positions, and respond to attacks from Burke and outside groups. In the
video “Teri,” the titular woman tells of her life-threatening experience with domestic violence
and her work with Walker to improve domestic violence laws in Wisconsin, explaining Walker’s
record on the issue. Walker clarifies his record and position on abortion in the television
advertisement “Decision.” Unlike most of his videos, in which Walker himself does not make an
appearance, Walker speaks directly to the camera in “Decision” and say that he is pro-life, but
that he signed legislation to ensure that decisions surrounding pregnancy and abortion would
remain between only a woman and her doctor. This bill mandated ultrasounds for women
seeking abortions and required doctors to have hospital admitting privileges if they are to
perform abortions. To pro-choice activists, both of these provisions are considered methods of
limiting abortion access within the bounds of legality. Walker’s advertisement came out on
October 6th, 2014, the same day as an Emily’s List advertisement attacking him for passing this
law. Walker’s final video mentioning women’s issues is also responding to outside attacks. This
advertisement, “More Opportunities to Succeed,” has Lieutenant Governor Rebecca Klayfish
directly addressing the audience and responding to attacks levied by Burke. According to
Klayfish, Burke has said that the Walker ticket does not support equal pay for women, which is
not true. Klayfish says that workplace discrimination will always remain illegal under the Walker
administration and that they will work to help women succeed in business. This advertisement
mentions women’s issues in order to respond to Burke’s attacks of Walker’s position on women,
especially regarding equal pay.
Massachusetts
Women’s issues played a major role in the campaigns of both candidates in
Massachusetts during the general election. In Massachusetts, Democratic Attorney General
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Martha Coakley ran against former gubernatorial candidate and Harvard Pilgrim Health Care
CEO, Charles Baker (commonly called Charlie). Baker won the Republican primary with 74.1%
of the vote. Coakley won the three-way Democratic primary with 42.4%, with state Treasurer
Steve Grossman receiving 36.4% and former Medicare and Medicaid Services administrator Don
Berwick 21.1% (Secretary of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts 2014). Baker beat Coakley in
the general election, 48.5% to 46.6% (The New York Times 2014). The race was considered a
tossup by the New York Times and leaning Republican by Larry Sabato.
Martha Coakley posted 48 videos on her YouTube channel, 20 of which mentioned
women’s issues. 33.33% of issue mentions were regarding women’s issues. Unlike Wendy
Davis, who mentioned women’s issues a similar percentage of the time, Coakley did not
emphasize one women’s issue in particular, as Davis did with rape. Coakley discussed birth
control (6.41% of all issue mentions), gender equality (6.41%), women’s empowerment (5.13%),
domestic violence (5.13%), women’s history (2.56%), women’s healthcare (1.28%), abortion
(1.28%), and human trafficking (1.28%). Coakley most often mentions women’s issues
alongside other issues as part of her agenda. 13 out of the 20 videos mentioning women’s issues
also mention at least two other issues, and often women’s issues are only referenced in these
videos as part of a list of priorities. Coakley utilizes women’s history and women’s
empowerment more than any of the other female candidates. She frequently quotes a plaque her
father gave her that said, “sometimes the best man for the job is a woman” and refers to the fact
that she would be the first elected female governor of Massachusetts, creating enthusiasm for her
campaign for reasons beyond her policy and her agenda. Coakley mentions women’s issues
many times when discussing her record. As Attorney General, Coakley worked on many sexual
abuse and human trafficking cases, which she references in several videos. Coakley also presents
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her stances and experience in opposition to Baker’s, using women’s issues to attack him. The
video “It Matters” starts with a clip of Cecile Richards, President of the Planned Parenthood
Federation of America, on MSNBC explaining why the Supreme Court ruling on contraception
in Burwell v. Hobby Lobby is problematic for women, as it allows women’s bosses to determine
if they can access contraceptives through their health insurance. Immediately following this is a
clip of Baker responding to a reporter asking how he feels about the case. Baker says, “it doesn’t
matter” because he only cares about Massachusetts, promoting the Coakley campaign to write
why it matters on the screen. Coakley also uses this method of contrast even more directly in the
video “Charlie Baker’s reaction to NFL domestic violence,” referring to reports of domestic
violence by Baltimore Ravens running back Ray Rice. This video starts with Charlie Baker’s
statement that he does not yet think Roger Gooddell, the Commissioner of the National Football
League, should be fired for the NFL’s response to domestic violence. This is followed by
Coakley’s response to Baker’s words, filmed specifically for this video and calling for
Gooddell’s resignation. Coakley also uses her record within this video to attack Baker, saying
that anyone who has worked with victims and survivors like herself would understand the gravity
of this issue. Though Coakley primarily mentions women’s issues briefly in the context of her
overall agenda, she also uses them in explaining her record, creating non-policy enthusiasm for
her campaign, and attacking her opponent.
During the general election, Baker posted 19 videos to his YouTube channel, 5 of which
mentioned women’s issues. 17.24% of all issue mentions were women’s issues. He only
mentions abortion (13.79% of all issue mentions) and equal pay (3.45%). Baker exclusively
mentions women’s issues in the context of his agenda, listing them alongside other issues. He
refers to abortion by saying that he is completely pro-choice. This is especially prominent in
23
Baker’s first television advertisement and YouTube video following the start of the general
election and thus, his race against a female candidate. The video “Caroline” emphasizes that he
is “100% pro-choice.” His daughter, whom the advertisement is named after, says these words,
and they appear on the screen at the same time, making his position on abortion very clear.
Coakley and Baker both have women’s issues on their agenda, as indicated by their frequent
listing of such issues alongside other campaign priorities. However, while Baker only mentions
women’s issues in terms of his agenda and positions, Coakley also discusses women’s issues in
terms of her record and uses them against Baker.
Georgia
Neither candidate discussed women’s issues at all in Georgia. The Democratic candidate
was state Senator Jason Carter, the grandson of President Jimmy Carter. The Republican
candidate was first-time incumbent Governor Nathan Deal. The New York Times considered the
race a tossup, and Larry Sabato considered it to be leaning Republican. Deal beat Carter 52.8%
to 44.8% (The New York Times 2014).
Maryland
Democratic Lieutenant Governor Anthony Brown ran against Republican businessman
Larry Hogan in the Maryland general election. Brown did run against a woman in the
Democratic primary, state Delegate Heather Mizeur. In the primary, Brown won 51.4% of the
vote, while Maryland Attorney General won 24.2% and Mizeur won 21.6% (The State Board of
Elections 2014). The New York Times considered the race a tossup, and Larry Sabato rated it as
leaning Democrat. Ultimately, Hogan won with 51.6% of the vote to Brown’s 46.9% (The New
York Times 2014). The candidate’s videos on women’s issues are in clear communication with
24
each other in the Maryland race, with Brown attacking Hogan on abortion and Hogan responding
in several videos.
Brown only posted 13 videos on YouTube during the general election, one of which
mentioned one women’s issue, abortion. As such, abortion made up 7.69% of all issue mentions.
Women’s issues also made up 8.11% of issue mentions throughout Brown’s entire campaign,
including the primary. During the primary, when he was running against a female candidate, he
posted two videos about domestic violence, highlighting the story of his cousin’s death and
explaining how her experience made domestic violence a legislative priority for him. These
videos starkly contrasted Brown’s television advertisement mentioning abortion in the general
election, which directly attacked Hogan for his position on abortion. This advertisement claims
that Hogan opposes the right to choose and wants to ban abortion even in cases of rape or incest.
During the general election, the Brown campaign only mentioned women’s issues in videos on
YouTube as a way to attack Hogan, differing from the personal stories and discussion of
Brown’s record during the primary election.
Hogan posted many more videos on his YouTube channel during the general election
than Brown did, with 54 total. Women’s issues were mentioned 9 times within 4 of these videos,
making up 18% of total issue mentions. Hogan mentioned abortion (6% of all issue mentions),
birth control (4%), domestic violence, breast cancer, women’s healthcare, and rape (2% each).
Hogan mentions women’s issues in respond to Brown’s claims about his position on abortion. In
“Jaymi,” Hogan’s daughter Jaymi specifically says that “these ads attacking him as anti-women
are just wrong.” Speaking directly into the camera, Jaymi then outlines Hogan’s positions on
over-the-counter birth control and access to abortion. This information serves to clarify Hogan’s
stances and nullify Brown’s attacks, as Jaymi states that Hogan would not change current
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abortion laws. “Deserves Better” is a similar advertisement, with Hogan himself responding to
Brown’s attacks and outlining his positions on birth control and abortion. Finally, the Hogan
campaign subtly mentions women’s issues by having a supporter state that Hogan would not
change any existing laws on social issues, referring to abortion and gun control, in the
advertisement “Amie.” Hogan’s fourth video mentioning women’s issues is not a response to
Brown’s claims or a clarification of Hogan’s intentions. Instead, the video “Women for Hogan
Rally for Domestic Violence and Breast Cancer Awareness Month” is a ten minute long speech
by Hogan about domestic violence and breast cancer, indicating his prioritization of these
women’s issues on his agenda. Hogan makes this speech surrounded by women wearing pink
“Women for Hogan” t-shirts. This video appears to be filmed on a cell phone and not edited, as
sometimes the cameraman’s fingers block the screen. The three videos responding to Brown’s
attacks and clarifying Hogan’s positions were all professionally produced, different drastically
from this unprofessional filmed and unedited video presenting Hogan’s priorities.
Florida
In Florida, incumbent Republican Governor Rick Scott ran against former Governor
Charlie Crist. Crist was a Republican when he was Governor, but he has since switched parties
and ran as a Democrat in 2014. Like Anthony Brown in Maryland, Crist ran against a woman in
the Democratic primary. He beat Nan Rich 74.4% to 25.6% (Florida Department of State 2014).
Scott only had nominal competition in the primary, also defeating a female candidate, Elizabeth
Cuevas-Neunder, with his 87.6% of the vote (Florida Department of State 2014). The race was
considered a tossup by the New York Times and seen as leaning Democrat by Larry Sabato.
Scott won by 1%, receiving 48.1% of the vote to Crist’s 47.1%, making it one of the closest
races of the year (The New York Times 2014).
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Charlie Crist mentioned women’s issues the second most frequently of any candidates, male
or female. In the general election, Crist posted 34 videos to his YouTube channel, 5 of which
mentioned women’s issues. Women’s issues made 29.41% of all issue mentions during Crist’s
general campaign. Including videos posted during the primary election, women’s issues only
made up 19.72% of all mentions, meaning he discussed women’s issues more when running
against a man than a woman. Crist primarily mentions women’s issues to attack Rick Scott, as he
does in every video mentioning women’s issues. Three of the five videos exclusively attack
Scott, discussing his record on cutting rape crisis center funding (“Turn”) and restricting abortion
access (“Party” and “Extreme”). In the other two videos, Crist continues to attack Scott’s record
while also promoting his own positions and agenda. In the advertisement “Paycheck,” Crist
draws a clear contrast between his support of equal pay and promise to sign an equal pay law on
his first day and office and Scott’s refusal to sign such a bill.
Scott only mentions women’s issues once out of his 62 general election videos, making
up .93% of all issue mentions. He also never mentions women’s issues in videos during the
primary election. This video, called “WINK Segment on Debbie Wasserman Schultz’ Offensive
Attack on Rick Scott,” is a response to Democratic attacks on Scott’s record; however, it is not a
response to the attacks levied by Crist in his advertisements. Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz,
the head of the Democratic National Committee, said that Rick Scott has given women “the back
of his hand” as Governor. In this clipping from a television news story, Scott calls for
Wasserman Schulz to apologize, along with Crist who was with her when this statement was
made. He also says that domestic violence is a serious issue and that Democrats do not take it
seriously, using this opportunity to criticize Democrats for their word choice surrounding
domestic violence. The Scott campaign did not produce any videos of its own discussing
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women’s issues and did not respond to any of Crist’s various attacks in his own videos, only
once bringing up domestic violence as a response to a Democratic attack and a way to shame
Democrats for their own method of discussing domestic violence.
Findings: Education
Education is traditionally considered a “feminine” issue because of its association with feminine
stereotypes. Unlike with women’s issues, every candidate talked about education. Show in the
chart above, education made up 15.95% of all issue mentions made by female candidates,
32.89% of all issue mentions made by Democratic men, 9.7% of all issue mentions by
Republican men running against women, and 13.95% of all issue mentions by Republican men
Figure 3: Percentage of Issue Mentions That Were About Education By Candidate Type
32.89%
35.00%
30.00%
25.00%
20.00%
15.95%
13.95%
15.00%
9.70%
10.00%
5.00%
0.00%
Democratic Female
Candidates
Democratic Male
Candidates
Republican Male
Candidates Running
Against Women
Republican Male
Candidates Running
Against Men
28
running against other men. In these calculations, videos posted throughout the entire race were
included for all candidates.
Democratic men mentioned education most often out of all types of candidates and in
each race. Every Democratic male candidate mentioned education around at least 30% of the
time, ranging from 29.73% to 36.36%. Only one Republican candidate mentioned education over
30% of the time, Gov. Nathan Deal, who was running against a male opponent. No Republican
men running against women discussed education more than 13.22% of the time, as Greg Abbott
did. The highest percentage for female candidates was Wendy Davis’s 21.97% of mentions. The
Democratic and Republican male candidates who discussed education the most, Jason Carter and
Nathan Deal, never mentioned women’s issues. Other candidates who did not discuss women’s
issues, Mary Burke and Allan Fung, did not mention education most among their candidate
categories, Democratic women and Republican men with female opponents, respectively.
Education is discussed more by Democratic men than by Democratic women and than by
Republican men, going against the idea that women are more likely to bring up feminine issues.
29
Figure 4: Percentage of Issue Mentions That Were About Education by Race
40.00%
36.36%
35.00%
32.39%
29.73%
30.00%
25.00%
31.11%
21.97%
20.00%
15.00%
12.82%
10.00%
5.00%
10.42%
6.38%
4.35%
13.22%
13.22%
12.00%
Democrat
12.96%
Republican
3.23%
0.00%
Conclusion
Women’s issues and feminine issues look different in actual campaigns than on paper.
There is no invariable gendered pattern as to the discussion of women’s issues that holds up
across all races. In general, women brought up women’s issues more than men, Democratic men
more than Republican men, and Republican men running against women more than Republican
men running against men. The manner in which women’s issues were discussed in these races
revealed more concrete patterns by gender and by party. Women were the only candidates to
mention gender in a non-policy context, discussing women’s history or the power and abilities of
women. Only Democratic candidates, both female and male, used women’s issues in order to
attack their opponents. Likewise, only Republican candidates brought up women’s issues in
response to attacks. Additionally, Democratic men discussed education, considered a feminine
issue, more than Democratic women did and more than Republican men did.
30
Further research should be done including advertisements run by outside groups, as they
were prevalent in the 2014 gubernatorial campaigns. In Wisconsin, for example, Walker posted a
video to his YouTube channel directly responding to an advertisement run by Emily’s List,
which was not posted on Burke’s channel. The role of outside groups may change the way that
candidates present their own agendas, and only focusing on the actions of the candidates may
have led to certain issues being left out of the study. Comparison of how Democratic and
Republican women discuss women’s issues would also be beneficial, as would examination of
how women’s issues play in races with only female candidates. This research will be possible as
more women continue to run for office.
31
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