Women, Power and Politics

In this presentation I will examine to what extent gender matters when it comes to women in high- ranking, political positions in the U.S. Using scholarly articles to examine how women politicians are perceived by voters, and whether or not the experiences of women politicians have changed over time. My preliminary findings suggest that people’s views and attitudes towards women have not changed much over a 50-year period. My findings also suggest that compared to their male counterparts, women politicians are framed as emotional and needy. My research is timely because we are in the height of another voting season; no new women candidates are running for the presidential office since Michelle Bauchman has resigned her intentions of running for President. I conclude with suggestions for future research which may include exploring the correlation of women candidates’ age, education level and media perception of voters in today’s society