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Introduction
Over the last quarter century, politics in the United States has fundamentally changed.
Perhaps the most notable transformation has been a technological evolution from a mass media
consisting only of radio, newspapers, and three television stations to one with hundreds of
television channels and access to media across the world via the World Wide Web. With these
new media, politicians can engage in innumerable marketing techniques to run political
campaigns – how have these techniques affected voters?
This question is particularly intriguing given another transformation: diversity in terms of
gender has increased among politicians, making elected officials more, though not perfectly,
reflective of the population (Center for American Women and Politics (CAWP) 2005). With an
increase in the number and the diversity of women in politics, gender stereotypes are not as
predictive as they used to be. And, with the rise of marketing, politicians can sell themselves to
potential voters in much the same way that companies sell products.
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Thus, candidates can
“bend their gender” attempting to overcome or change gender stereotypes.
In this chapter, I examine the effects of marketing campaigns on voters’ perceptions and
choices. I focus on candidate strategies with respect to candidate gender and campaign websites.
The World Wide Web is a medium that allows candidates to control and present a high volume
of information, permitting candidates to magnify their most appealing features and minimize
drawbacks (Bimber and Davis 2003).
I proceed by discussing the significance of research on gender and campaigning. I next
turn to a discussion of how voters make choices and present a model of the potential influence of
gender-based campaigns on voters’ decision making processes. Finally, I test this model using
an original experiment designed to understand the effects of strategies on websites. I conclude
with an examination of my results and their implications for representation.
Research Significance
Past research on gender has examined voters’ broad stereotypes of a candidate based on
his or her gender. The research concludes that voters do not vote for or against women
candidates based on gender alone, but rather, they develop certain expectations (Huddy 1994).
Voters use these gendered inferences in their final vote choice, which can disadvantage women
candidates among certain voters predisposed towards a male candidate (Sanbonmatsu 2002).
But, scholars do not fully understand how candidates take advantage of gender through use of
marketing techniques in campaigns. In the past, gender itself could be used as a cue to voters to
make inferences about a candidate’s character traits, beliefs, and support for gender-related
policies. Female politicians have been more likely to represent women’s interests (Mansbridge
1999) by taking up issues such as equal pay, family leave, and discrimination, far more often
than their male counterparts, regardless of party affiliation (Burrell 1994; Carroll 1994; Carroll
2001; Carroll 2003; Gertzog 1995; Rosenthal 1995; Rosenthal 2002; Sapiro 1981; Taylor-
Robinson and Heath 2003). Gender could help voters choose a candidate who represents their
own gender, supporting their gender-specific needs and values (Cook 1998; Paolino 1995; Zipp
and Plutzer 1985). In the current marketing age, candidates use gender as part of their candidate
strategy.
Gender bending in a marketing age has the potential to help or harm a voter’s ability to
choose a politician to best represent their interests. For a female voter in the marketing era,
choosing a politician who best represents her gender is a more difficult task. A male candidate
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Advertising expert Donny Deutsch, quoted in a New York Times article, directly compared political campaigns to
selling “toothpaste and automobiles (Seelye 2004).”
Convention