ABSTRACT
In the 1990 US Senate races, the presence of nine female candidates led many to describe it as the "Year of the Woman," but only incumbent Senator Nancy Kassebaum was elected. The different approaches to political advertising are linked in many ways to different approaches to knowledge that have been associated with men and women. Men and women used similar video and audio techniques, discussed the same issues, and stressed such campaign themes as fairness versus competence, reform versus the status quo, or Washington outsiders versus insiders. Even though no production technique was privileged, there was a greater tendency for women to appear more formally dressed than men were in their commercials. In political advertising, we are most likely to discover number of structural forms in such areas as production values, campaign issues, candidate images, and emotional appeals. In short, women running for office faced the need to exhibit the stereotypically masculine traits we associate with political life.
