ABSTRACT

As noted in chapter 2, extensive studies by Kim Fridkin Kahn (1991, 1992, 1994a, 1994b, 1996; Kahn and Goldenberg 1991) examining the newspaper coverage of women candidates running for election in the 1980s found that this medium stereotypes female candidates not only by emphasizing “feminine traits” and “feminine issues,” but also by questioning their viability as candidates. Studies conducted since Kahn’s work (Banwart, Bystrom, and Robertson 2003; Bystrom, Robertson, and Banwart 2001; Devitt 1999; Robertson et al. 2002; Smith 1997), however, have given some hope that media coverage of women candidates might be improving in the late 1990s and early twenty-first century (see chapter 2).