With so many women running for president, why is focus still on the men?
As the 2020 Democratic field expands to 20 candidates this week, with the expected entrance of former Vice President Joe Biden, a glaring discrepancy looms over the race: It鈥檚 a quartet of white men 鈥� Mr. Biden, Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders, former Texas Rep. Beto O鈥橰ourke, and South Bend, Indiana, Mayor Pete Buttigieg 鈥� who are attracting the most media attention. And with the exception of California Sen. Kamala Harris, the record six women running for president are generally lagging behind the men in polling and fundraising.
This is particularly frustrating to supporters of Sen. Elizabeth Warren, a janitor鈥檚 daughter turned Harvard law professor who has dedicated her life to fighting income inequality in the United States.
鈥�,鈥� trumpets a headline in聽Jacobin. 鈥�,鈥� offers an NBC piece. And from WBUR in Senator Warren鈥檚 home state of Massachusetts: 鈥�.鈥� (All three pieces were written by men.)
Why We Wrote This
Much has been made of the surge of women candidates. But media coverage 鈥� and entrenched assumptions about what makes a strong candidate 鈥� may not have caught up with the dramatic shift.
Just a few months after the 鈥淵ear of the Woman鈥� brought female representation in Congress to a record high, the glass ceiling of presidential elections is looking harder to shatter. Some suggest gender bias may be depriving the half-dozen women candidates of the media coverage they deserve, which at this stage in the race can dramatically influence their polling and fundraising numbers.
鈥淚t鈥檚 skewing the way we鈥檙e talking about these candidates very early on, when the media has an outsized potential to shape primaries,鈥� says Lauren Leader, CEO of All In Together whose op-ed for The Hill last week, 鈥�,鈥� got 50,000 shares in two days.
By many measurements, women have a better chance than ever before of reaching the White House. Voter resistance to female candidates (based on responses to the question 鈥渁re men better suited emotionally for politics than most women?鈥�) has聽聽of 13 percent. That鈥檚 about a 25% improvement since 2016, when Hillary Clinton got nearly 3 million more votes than Donald Trump.聽聽
鈥淸The candidates] have just got to stay the course and not get sucked into feeling that they need to out-shout the men, or out-thump their chests, but look for every opportunity to reach out to voters,鈥� says Christine Todd Whitman, who overcame a 21% polling gap to become the first female governor of New Jersey in 1993. 鈥淲omen do that well. ... They listen sometimes in a way that their male counterparts don鈥檛.鈥�
Yet when it comes to the main indicators of how much traction candidates are getting 鈥� media coverage, fundraising, and polling 鈥� the women are conspicuously lagging, with none doing well in all three categories.
By the numbers
Senator Warren and New York Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand are doing about equally badly in all three categories, but Senator Harris and Sen. Amy Klobuchar of Minnesota are getting substantially less media coverage than their fundraising and polling numbers would suggest.
Senator Harris is running third in聽the聽聽and has raised more money than any Democratic contender except Senator Sanders. However, she鈥檚 been mentioned聽聽as Mayor Buttigieg on major cable news channels recently 鈥� though that was during a time period leading up to the formal announcement of his candidacy. Similarly, Senator Klobuchar came in sixth聽in聽聽but ranks 10th聽in recent media mentions.
鈥淎ll most men have to do is be mayor of a small town, turn 37, and say I鈥檓 running for office,鈥� says Nichole Bauer, who teaches political communication at Louisiana State University in Baton Rouge. Professor Bauer has run studies giving respondents the exact same information about hypothetical candidates and found they more often prefer the male version. 鈥淪o I know it鈥檚 not just Hillary hate,鈥� she says.
Of course, there are many factors that can determine media coverage, such as timing and novelty, and those can affect men as well. In 2016, for example, former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush outraised all 16 other candidates in the 2016 GOP primary race yet struggled to attract the spotlight. Indeed, Donald Trump鈥檚 ability to dominate the news cycle was a consistent source of frustration to all of his opponents.聽
鈥淭he 16 men who ran for the nomination for the Republicans would say the same thing 鈥� I鈥檓 jumping up and down here, why don鈥檛 you find me interesting?鈥� says Kathleen Dolan, a political scientist at the University of Wisconsin, Milwaukee. 鈥淵ou had people who had all kinds of experience who couldn鈥檛 break through or crack through. So why do we expect a woman who is a senator from Minnesota 鈥� to be breaking through?鈥�
A question of tone
But it鈥檚 not just the amount of coverage that matters; tone plays a big role as well. Many have seized on a recent media review from Northeastern University in Boston, which concluded that coverage of the female 2020 candidates has been more negative than that of their male counterparts. The unique words used to describe the women often had to do with controversies 鈥� such as Senator Warren鈥檚 Native American claims or Senator Klobuchar鈥檚 use of a comb to eat her salad after staffers failed to get her utensils before a flight 鈥� rather than substantive policy ideas or positive traits.
The study鈥檚 authors聽聽that聽their initial findings were based on a very limited sample of selected articles from the top five most-read publications.
鈥淚 was surprised at how quick people were to use it as evidence for this kind of sexism in media coverage or the campaign, when we were trying to be very clear up top that this is only 130 articles, this is not a truly random set of news publications, it鈥檚 just a starting point,鈥� says Aleszu Bajak, who teaches courses on聽digital journalism, data reporting, and new media at聽Northeastern. 鈥淚t鈥檚 a continuing research project.鈥�
Professor Bajak says he and student Alexander Frandsen have since nearly doubled the data set to about 300 articles and are bringing in other colleagues to help with the growing project.
鈥淲e鈥檝e added Buttigieg, who now seems to be blowing everyone out of the water in terms of positivity,鈥� he says 鈥� but the women are still at the bottom.
Many scholars who study women in politics, most of whom are women themselves, say this is partially the result of political journalists聽being mostly male. According to the Women鈥檚 Media Center, men author nearly three-quarters of articles about U.S. elections on eight news websites, including The Washington Post and The New York Times online, CNN, Vox, and Fox. In the 14 print publications surveyed, the disparity is less glaring but still evident, with men writing 61% of articles.
To some, this imbalance in the gender makeup of the press corps makes media coverage prone to framing articles from a male perspective. For example, in evaluating a female candidate鈥檚 qualifications, they look for someone who is strong, rational, composed, and a fighter, says Meredith Conroy, a political scientist at聽California State University, San Bernardino.
鈥淲omen can try to contort themselves into this mold, but it鈥檚 harder,鈥� says Professor Conroy, author of 鈥淢asculinity, Media, and the American Presidency.鈥� 鈥淢en are聽inherently more congruent with聽this vision of the presidency, so their male behaviors are less聽likely to be questioned by the press.鈥澛�
Take the issue of how a candidate treats his or her staff 鈥撀燼 point on which Senator Klobuchar has been hammered hard.
鈥淚f it had been reported that Bernie had mistreated his staff, it would align with perceptions that he鈥檚 just an old grumpy man and that鈥檚 how he does business 鈥� that he鈥檚 gruff or curmudgeonly,鈥� says聽Kelly Dittmar, a scholar at the Center for American Women and Politics at Rutgers University in New Jersey.
Still, just because gender bias may exist, that doesn鈥檛 mean it is the primary factor determining a candidate鈥檚 relative success or failure. Professor Dolan of the University of Wisconsin, for one,聽has become frustrated with how gender bias is being discussed relative to the presidential race.
鈥淧eople can鈥檛 hold two things in their mind. Once they say there is gender bias at work, then the narrative becomes that everything about their candidacy鈥� has to do with gender bias, she says.
She and others point out that the current crop of women candidates may well be suffering from a range of issues, from perceived charisma deficits to serious political missteps, that have thwarted plenty of men in previous primary seasons.
When it comes to Senator Warren, her struggles can be traced to how her campaign handled the Native American controversy on the eve of announcing her candidacy, says Alex Conant, a Republican strategist who helped Sen. Joni Ernst become the first woman to represent Iowa in Congress.
鈥淵ou have one chance to introduce yourself to the electorate, and she really screwed that up,鈥� he says.聽鈥淚f someone is claiming that Elizabeth Warren is not breaking through because of chronic sexism, that is making an excuse for an underperforming campaign.鈥�
