Gender and Political Communication: Theoretical Insights and Empirical Evidence

Women are almost universally underrepresented in politics. Although the norm of gender equality has been widely supported (in Western societies) for decades, this has not per se translated into gender-equal politics: While there has been a wide range of female governors, legislators, (prime) ministers and party leaders, a large majority of the higher offices and governing positions are still held by men. Issues of political communication represent a major showplace for the gendering of politics, both as a producer of persisting gender inequality and as a catalyst for potential change. This section brings together various perspectives from the realm of political communication to explore the underrepresentation of women in political life, for instance: 1) Politicians as campaigners: As politicians have to actively navigate different gender and professional stereotypes that may exist in the electorate, male and female politicians are likely to highlight different issues, character traits, aspects of their personal background and ambitions in their communication to the public. This perspective invites papers that study differences in political campaign strategies and the controlled communication of the candidate, and/or the differences in the impact of these political messages for male and female politicians on voters. Work on (self-)presentation strategies may include rhetorical or visual approaches and focus on both traditional (e.g., public speeches, ads, campaign material, debates) or digital (e.g., candidate websites, social media platforms, blogs) forms of communication. 2) Politicians in the journalistic eye: Politicians themselves are the objects of political communication processes in a strongly mediatized environment where the media are citizens’ primary source of political information. Thus, a systematic gender bias in the media coverage of politicians is likely to contribute to the underrepresentation of women in politics. This perspective invites papers that study the differences in journalistic portrayal of women and men in their political life, whether it be in the amount of the media attention or in the content of the media coverage. This includes research investigating a wide range of journalistic practices and gendered representations, as well as their effects on the audiences. 3) Politicians and digital communication: New media formats, such as social and digital media, pose new and particular sets of challenges to women in politics, such as gendered incivility and digital harassment. At the same time, new media formats also provide unique opportunities to mobilize and interact with wider audiences. This perspective invites papers on gender and new media, for example (but not limited to), threads on social media and blogs, meme culture, gendered algorithms, bots, and forms of multi-/crossmedia representation and communication. The goal of this section is to discuss relevant and topical research on the intersection of gender, politics and communication that helps us understand the role of media and communication in the ongoing underrepresentation of women in the political world. We welcome both theoretical and empirical papers and we would like to bring together qualitative and quantitative researchers, employing experimental designs, interviews, content analysis, survey studies, computational, or other relevant methods. Papers that explicitly aim to strengthen our understanding of the causality and contexts of gender differences or communication effects are encouraged. In addition, we are also particularly interested in papers dedicated to an intersectional analysis of gendered phenomena in political communication.