Gender and Elections

Gender and Elections offers a systematic, lively, multi-faceted account of the role of gender in the electoral process through the 2004 elections. This timely, yet enduring, volume strikes a balance between highlighting the most important developments for women as voters and candidates in the 2004 elections and providing a more long-term, in-depth analysis of the ways that gender has helped shape the contours and outcomes of electoral politics in the United States. Individual chapters demonstrate the importance of gender in understanding and interpreting presidential elections, voter participation and turnout, voting choices, congressional elections, the participation of African American women, the support of political parties and women's organizations, candidate communications with voters, and state elections. Without question, this book is the most comprehensive, reliable, and trustworthy resource on the role of gender in electoral politics.

The most comprehensive, reliable, and trustworthy resource on the role of gender in electoral politics.

This book offers a systematic, lively, multi-faceted account of the role of gender in the electoral process through the 2004 elections. This timely volume strikes a balance between highlighting the most important developments for women as voters and candidates in the 2004 elections and providing a more long-term, in-depth analysis of the ways that gender has helped shape the contours and outcomes of electoral politics in the United States. Without question, this book is the most comprehensive, reliable, and trustworthy resource on the role of gender in electoral politics.

Susan J. Carroll is the author of Women as Candidates in American Politics (Indiana University Press, second edition, 1994) and editor of The Impact of Women in Public Office (Indiana 2001) and Women and American Politics: New Questions, New Directions (Oxford 2003). She has published many journal articles and book chapters focusing on women candidates, voters, elected officials, and political appointees. An expert on women's participation in electoral politics, she is frequently called upon as a source for newspaper, radio, and television coverage of news stories pertaining to women and politics. She is a founder and former president of the Organized Section for Women and Politics Research of the American Political Science Association. Carroll received her M.A. and Ph.D. in political science from Indiana University and her B.A. in history from Miami University in Ohio.Richard L. Fox received his Ph.D. in 1994 from the University of California, Santa Barbara. He is an associate professor of political science at Union College. The majority of his research focuses on gender in the electoral process. He has studied the manner in which gender affects voting behavior, state executive elections, congressional elections, and political ambition. This body of research is based on a variety of data collection techniques, including mail surveys of potential candidates, city managers, and trial court judges. He is the author of Gender Dynamics in Congressional Elections (Sage, 1997) and co-author of Tabloid Justice: The Criminal Justice System in the Age of Media Frenzy (Lynne Rienner, 2001). He is also co-author, with Jennifer Lawless of It Takes a Candidate: Why Women Don't Run for Office (Cambridge University Press, 2005). He has authored or co-authored numerous book chapters and articles appearing in The Journal of Politics, American Journal of Political Science, Political Psychology, PS, Women and Politics, Political Research Quarterly, and Public Administration Review. He has also written numerous op-ed articles, some of which have appeared in the New York Times and The Wall Street Journal.

Introduction: gender and electoral politics: an overview Susan J. Carroll and Richard L. Fox; 1. Presidential elections: gendered space and the case of 2004 Georgia Duerst-Lahti; 2. Voter participation and turnout: it's a new game Susan A. MacManus; 3. Voting choices: meet you at the gender gap Susan J. Carroll; 4. Congressional elections: where are we on the road to gender parity? Richard L. Fox; 5. African American women and electoral politics: journeying from the shadows to the spotlight Wendy G. Smooth; 6. Political parties and women's organizations: bringing women into the electoral arena Barbara Burrell; 7. Advertising, Web sites, and media coverage: gender and communication along the campaign trail Dianne Bystrom; 8. State elections: where do women run? Where do women win? Kira Sanbonmatsu.