Synopses & Reviews
From the presidential level down, men and women who run for political office confront different electoral realities. In her probing study,
Navigating Gendered Terrain, Kelly Dittmar investigates how gender influences the campaign strategy and behavior of candidates today. Concurrently, she shows how candidates' strategic and tactical decisions can influence the gendered nature of campaign institutions.
Navigating Gendered Terrain addresses how gender is used to shape how campaigns are waged by influencing insider perceptions of and decisions about effective campaign messages, images, and tactics within party and political contexts. Dittmar uses survey information and interviews with candidates, political consultants, and other campaign professionals to reveal how gender-informed advertising, websites, and overall presentation to voters respond to stereotypes and perceptions of female and male candidates.
She closes her book by offering a feminist interpretation of women as candidates and explaining how the unintended outcomes of political campaigns reinforce prevailing ideas about gender and candidacy.
Review
Dr. Dittmar's manuscript is distinctive in its research focus regarding questions of the gendered nature of contemporary campaigns for elective office. Her focus on the perspectives of campaign practitioners and their implementation of strategies to affect gender issues is singular in its contribution to our knowledge of this domain. --Barbara Burrell
About the Author
Kelly Dittmar is an Assistant Research Professor at the Center for American Women and Politics, a unit of the Eagleton Institute of Politics at Rutgers University.
Table of Contents
List of Figures and TablesAcknowledgments1 Campaigns as Gendered Institutions2 Consultant Perceptions of Voters’ Gender Stereotypes3 Consultant Perceptions of Effective Strategies4 Gender in Context5 Gender Dynamics in Image and Message Creation6 Targeting Women Voters and Contrasting Opponents7 On Her Own Terms: Shifting Gender Dynamics in Campaign InstitutionsAppendix A: Interview ListAppendix B: Gubernatorial and U.S. Senate Contests Included in Interview Analysis of 2008 and 2010 ElectionsNotesReferencesIndex