ABSTRACT
Each election cycle increasing numbers of women run for political offi ce at the local, state, and even the national level. These female candidates adopt a variety of campaign strategies from Iowa Senate candidate Joni Ernst who touted her credentials as a soldier and a mother with unique “pork-cutting” skills to Texas gubernatorial candidate Wendy Davis who emphasized her background as a single, working mother. These divergent strategies refl ect the diversity of women running for political offi ce, but also different ways candidates can talk about their gender. Ernst’s strategy focused on downplaying feminine stereotypes while Davis embraced her gender as a benefi t. The extent to which feminine stereotypes helped Ernst’s victory or contributed to Davis’s defeat is unclear. These strategies do refl ect the lack of consensus on whether female candidates do best by avoiding or embracing feminine stereotypes on the campaign trail.
