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Michelle Obama as a Political Symbol: Race, Gender, and Public Opinion toward the First Lady
Abstract
Popular commentary surrounding Michelle Obama focuses on the symbolic importance of her tenure as the nation's first African American first lady. Despite these assertions, relatively few studies have examined public opinion toward Michelle Obama and the extent to which race and gender influenced public evaluations of her. Even fewer studies have examined how the intersection of race and gender influenced political attitudes toward Michelle Obama and her ability to serve as a meaningful political symbol. Using public opinion polls from 2008 to 2017 and data from the Black Women in America survey, we examine public opinion toward Michelle Obama as a function of respondents’ race, gender, and the intersection between the two. We find that African Americans were generally more favorable toward Michelle Obama than white Americans, with minimal differences between men and women. Although white women were no more likely than white men to view Michelle Obama favorably, we find that they were more likely to have information on Michelle Obama's “Let's Move” initiative. Most importantly, we find that Michelle Obama served as a unique political symbol for African American women and that her presence in politics significantly increased black women's evaluation of their race-gender group.
... In addition to partisanship, voter gender may also be related to how voters select candidates in mixed-gender contests. A great deal of research has examined the degree to which gender serves as a meaningful political identity that informs vote choice and support for public officials (Badas and Stauffer 2018, 2019a, 2019bDolan 2006;Plutzer and Zipp 1996;Zipp and Plutzer 1985). Popular political narratives discuss the ARE YOU MY CANDIDATE? ...
... In addition to partisanship, voter gender may also be related to how voters select candidates in mixed-gender contests. A great deal of research has examined the degree to which gender serves as a meaningful political identity that informs vote choice and support for public officials (Badas and Stauffer 2018, 2019a, 2019bDolan 2006;Plutzer and Zipp 1996;Zipp and Plutzer 1985). Popular political narratives discuss the ARE YOU MY CANDIDATE? ...
Partisanship is the dominant force that dictates American electoral behavior. Yet Americans often participate in elections in which either the partisanship of candidates is unknown or candidates from the same party compete, rendering the partisan cue meaningless. In this research, we examine how candidate demographics—specifically gender—relate to voter behavior and candidate selection in these contexts. Leveraging survey data from same-party matchups in congressional elections (resulting from “top-two primaries”), we examine the relationship between candidate gender and undervoting and vote choice. We find that in same-party matchups, women candidates are associated with lower levels of undervoting among women voters. Furthermore, we find that in mixed-gender contests, women voters from both parties and Democratic men are more likely to favor female candidates. The findings presented here have important implications for the literatures on gender and politics, electoral politics, partisanship, and the design of electoral institutions.
First ladies have always received a great deal of attention and are among the most recognizable figures of any presidential administration. They're often treated as celebrities, making them some of the most prominent women of their eras. Yet many of their stories and contributions have been overlooked. Through a collection of thematic essays, The Cambridge Companion to US First Ladies provides a thorough and compelling examination of the development of the first lady institution, and the political, social, and cultural influence of the women who've served in this role. Topics covered include the evolution of various first lady roles, such as hostess, campaigner, surrogate, diplomat, social advocate, and trendsetter; how first ladies have been political assets and liabilities; the impact of first ladies' speeches and media usage; first ladies during wartime and presidential deaths; the contributions of first lady stand-ins; how presidential spouses have been represented in films; and how these women are memorialized and remembered-or forgotten.
First ladies have always received a great deal of attention and are among the most recognizable figures of any presidential administration. They're often treated as celebrities, making them some of the most prominent women of their eras. Yet many of their stories and contributions have been overlooked. Through a collection of thematic essays, The Cambridge Companion to US First Ladies provides a thorough and compelling examination of the development of the first lady institution, and the political, social, and cultural influence of the women who've served in this role. Topics covered include the evolution of various first lady roles, such as hostess, campaigner, surrogate, diplomat, social advocate, and trendsetter; how first ladies have been political assets and liabilities; the impact of first ladies' speeches and media usage; first ladies during wartime and presidential deaths; the contributions of first lady stand-ins; how presidential spouses have been represented in films; and how these women are memorialized and remembered-or forgotten.
The popularization of intersectionality within political science, feminist scholarship, and activism has constituted nothing less than a paradigm shift (Hancock 2007a). Politics & Gender has been a critical actor in enabling change within our discipline. However, this development has been hard won and there remains much to be done to operationalize intersectionality in line with Black feminist theory, and to center women of color and other intersectionally marginalized groups within scholarship. This article both traces the evolution of intersectional approaches within Politics & Gender over two decades and articulates pathways for future gender and politics research which aims to employ intersectionality. We employ quantitative and qualitative analysis of articles’ foci on different inequality structures and categories, their methodological approaches, and how they employ the concept of intersectionality. Subsequently, we argue in favor of approaches which center rather than include diverse intersectionally marginalized groups, emphasize the normative commitments of Black feminist theory to transformative justice rather than liberal inclusion, analyze intersectional structures and institutions as well as individual experience and identity, treat the constitution of categories and groups as contextual and contingent, dare to address the dangers of “women” as a theoretical starting point, and challenge fundamental raced-gendered assumptions of liberal democracy.
This case study examines Michelle Obama’s use of fashion to construct her own identity as the first Black First Lady in U.S. history. We analyze how Obama exerted political agency to develop her own leadership style while defining her role and legacy. We explain how existing gender, race, and class hierarchies shaped public narratives about her fashion choices and leadership style while she pushed back against stereotypes and blazed a new path. We found that Michelle Obama harnessed the public’s fixation with her fashion choices by strategically utilizing fashion as a message to champion the issues and communities most important to her.
Supreme Court justices' opinions shape the contours of case law binding throughout the United States. Importantly though, justices do not write their opinions de novo. Rather, they routinely draw on lower court judges' opinion language when crafting opinions. In doing so, justices stretch the substantive impact of lower court judges' reasoning beyond the boundaries of their circuits. However, justices do not draw equally on lower court opinions; while previous work often ties this to judges' professional qualifications, we draw on work stressing female supervisors are more likely to enforce professional norms on subordinates. We argue female justices are more likely to draw upon lower court opinions complying with professional norms because of greater implicit norm internalization over the course of their careers. We test this proposition with a quantitative textual analysis of the justices' opinions and lower court opinions. We find support for our argument. This raises normative concerns about the overall impact of greater judicial diversity.
Recently, scientific experts have become increasingly influential in political decision-making. Although previous research has examined the extent and conditions under which politicians use scientific evidence, we know less about how citizens perceive scientific experts. In this study, we argue that the credibility of experts depends not only on the message they deliver or the medium they use, but also on the individual characteristics of the experts. Using data collected from an original survey experiment among Swiss citizens on climate change (N = 1,854), this study analyses whether the gender and discipline of experts influence citizens' perceptions of their credibility. The results show that, contrary to our assumptions, citizens do not perceive female experts as less credible than their male colleagues. However, this effect is mainly driven by female citizens who consider female and social science experts as more credible. These findings have important implications for the role of experts in policy-making.
COVID-19 data reveal that the pandemic caused chaos for all, but the Black community repeatedly saw elevated rates of infection and high mortality rates. After COVID-19 vaccines were developed, dissemination and uptake within the Black community lacked. It was abundantly clear that the Black community’s large distrust of the medical establishment was a barrier to successfully rolling out COVID-19 vaccines. Former First Lady Michelle Obama, received her vaccine and posted a captioned image across all of her social media platforms. Her posts functioned as a health promotion tool. Therefore, to grasp the importance of Blackness and Black culture as it relates to communication, we utilize the Culture-Centered Approach as a lens to analyze the rhetoric of Michelle Obama’s vaccination posts. We argue that not only did Michelle Obama use her social position as former First Lady and a Black woman to connect with the Black community when she posted about receiving the vaccine, but we also highlight the unique communicative choices present in the posts that are rooted in Blackness.
While widespread agreement that policing in the United States needs to be reformed arose in the summer of 2020, little consensus about specific reforms was reached. A common theme that arose, however, is a general lack of trust in the police. One response has been to increase agency diversity in terms of both officer race and officer gender. However, important questions exist about when – and what type(s) of – diversity shape citizen trust in and willingness to cooperate with the police – especially when considered in conjunction with agency performance and policies. To answer these questions, we use two conjoint experiments to evaluate whether citizens consider diversity when evaluating police agencies. We find that while both racial and gender diversity can influence public evaluations sometimes, these effects tend to emerge in the context of only the most (least) diverse institutions and are muted compared to the effects of agency policies and performance.
Some narratives claim that American presidents can increase their approval ratings by nominating members of underrepresented groups to positions within the judiciary. Indeed, public opinion polls frequently show that members of the public think presidents should consider individuals from underrepresented groups when making judicial appointments. Despite the prevalence of these narratives, little research investigates how the descriptive characteristics of judicial appointments influence public evaluations of the president. We find that the public views presidents more favourably when they are more inclusive of women and minorities in their judicial appointments, and this effect is particularly strong for Democrats. The results demonstrate that presidents can increase public support by appointing individuals from underrepresented groups. This research has implications for representation and judicial selection in the United States.
Theoretical work argues that citizens gain important symbolic benefits when they are represented by gender-inclusive institutions. Despite the centrality of this claim in the literature, empirical evidence is mixed. In this article, I argue that these mixed findings are—in part—because many Americans hold beliefs about women’s inclusion that are out of step with reality. Leveraging variation in survey respondents’ beliefs about women’s representation, I examine how these perceptions influence attitudes toward Congress and state legislatures. In both cases, I find that believing women are included is associated with higher levels of external efficacy among both men and women. Using panel data, I then show that when citizens’ underestimations (overestimations) are corrected, their levels of efficacy increase (decrease), shedding further light on this relationship. The findings presented in this research add new theoretical insights into when, and how, Americans consider descriptive representation when evaluating the institutions that represent them.
The paper examined Michelle Obama's reflexibility in terms of images that define her in 'Becoming' as well as the narrative strategies that she has used to inscribe herself in the autobiography. In what appears to be a deconstructive criticism, the paper sought after images that are apparent in 'Becoming,' that acts as subverting constructs of intergenerational stereotypes that societies employ to define women, black women and established women. Closely, the narrative aspect focused on her narrative styles that add on her holistic past's reconstruction into the form of autobiography. 'Theory of Autobiography' and 'New Criticism' were the primary reflections that added emphasis on the relevancy of the gotten findings.
In 2008, for the first time in the history of this country, a black woman became First Lady of the United States. During Barack Obama's presidency, Michelle Obama was ever present in the public eye for her advocacy on issues related to health, military families, education, and for promoting the interests of women and girls. This article contributes to ongoing scholarly discourse, as well as extensive media coverage and analysis, regarding Obama's role as wife and first lady by critically examining how the particular model of motherhood she embraced and exhibited, a model firmly rooted in the black American community, was designed to challenge negative stereotypes of black women, maternity, and families. We address the following questions in this work: How did Obama's identity as a black woman influence the policies she championed as first lady? Does Obama's mothering relate to stereotypes of black mothers and help (re)define black motherhood, and if so, how? What does it mean to be a black mater gentis or mother of the nation? Drawing on her speeches and policy initiatives, we reveal how Michelle Obama defied dominant and oppressive stereotypes of black women and mothers while simultaneously (re)defining black womanhood and motherhood for the nation.
In this article, we explore the degree to which African American state legislators have been able to translate election to office into substantive representation. We are particularly interested in the impact of race and gender on the likelihood of legislative bill submission and passage. While previous studies have focused on inter-group representation, our analysis examines intra-group representation by disaggregating race, gender, and party identification. By doing so, we are able to capture the intra-group variation between various groups such as black Democratic men and black Democratic women and white Democratic women and white Republican women. Using the case of Mississippi, the state with the highest number of black elected officials, we examine the legislator's propensity to introduce and pass progressive legislation. We employ logistic regression using cluster standard errors. The results reveal that a progressive bill is more likely to be introduced when a black woman serves as the primary sponsor, as compared to other members in the state legislature. However, contrary to our expectations, African American women are not significantly less likely to get their bills passed when compared to their colleagues. These findings point out the need to build more defined models of legislative policymaking that are attentive to the intersections of race and gender as political categories of significance.
Political scientists have largely explored beliefs about racial and gender inequality independently of one another; and, as a result, it remains unclear how attitudes about these two groups might work together to jointly shape policy support. To evaluate this relationship, we conducted an experiment in the Cooperative Congressional Election Study (CCES) in which we manipulated racial cues in a survey question about a gender-based pay equity policy. We found that support for the policy is determined by beliefs about women’s experiences of discrimination. However, beliefs about systematic racial discrimination also shaped policy attitudes. Among white liberals, both Black and Hispanic racial cues activated racial prejudice and depressed support for policies benefitting women. Among white conservatives, policy support was uniformly low across experimental conditions, pointing more toward principled opposition to such policies regardless of how their beneficiaries are described.
Supporters argue that "taking to the airwaves" helps Mrs. Obama soften her public image and enhance her appeal among mainstream voters; while critics maintain that the FLOTUS runs the risk of overexposure and falling out of public favor. To test this "transformation hypothesis," we content-analyze over a hundred toplines (summary documents of survey results) from nearly a dozen commercial polls during the 2008 and 2012 presidential campaign cycles, and we merge that data with Michelle Obama's filmography (a chronology of her media activities). We find that the First Lady's polling numbers are influenced by both the frequency and the type of TV appearances she makes. Certain genres and viewing times are more influential than others (in the sense that they enhance or diminish Mrs. Obama's popularity to varying degrees). Then again, "less is more" when it comes to the overall impact of media activity on FLOTUS perceptions: Scheduling multiple broadcast trips in the same week will not ease the First Lady's image transformation, and doing so might actually work against her efforts. These findings have implications for the study of Black women in politics and First Ladies as public figures.
White House expert Lauren A. Wright identifies, explains, and measures the impact of the expanding role of presidential spouses in the White House and presidential campaign communications strategy, with a focus on the Clinton, Bush, and Obama administrations.
More than any other time in history, the First Lady now bears responsibilities tantamount to those of any high-ranking cabinet member. This fascinating book documents the growing presence of the president's wife in the communications strategies of the last three administrations, explaining why their involvement in a campaign has been critical to its survival. The book explores how the First Lady serves to persuade public opinion, make personal appeals to the public on behalf of the president, and promote initiatives that serve as uncontroversial frames for controversial policies.
The author delves into political discussions about what makes presidents and presidential candidates likable, what draws public support to their agendas, and why spouses appear to be more effective in these arenas than other surrogates or even the presidents themselves. The content features dozens of interviews with former White House staff and communications strategists; in-depth analysis of almost 1,700 public speeches made by Hillary Clinton, Laura Bush, and Michelle Obama; and surveys testing the effect of public relations strategies involving spouses on political opinion.
Series Blurb: Oxford Readings in Feminism provide accessible, one-volume guides to the very best in contemporary feminist thinking, assessing its impact and importance in key areas of study. Collected together by scholars of outstanding reputation in their field, the articles chosen represent the most important work on feminist issues, and concise, lively introductions to each volume crystallize the main line of debate in the field. Is there too much gender in politics, too much stereotyping of female and male? Or is there too little gender, too little attention to differences between women and men? Should feminists be challenging male dominance by opening up politics to women? Or is 'women' a fictitious entity that fails to address differences by class or race? Is equality best served by denying differences between the sexes? Or best promoted by stressing the special needs of women? The essays in Feminism and RPolitics answer these questions in a variety of ways, but all see feminism as transforming the way we think about and act in politics. Spanning issues of citizenship and political representation, the ambiguities of identity politics, and the problems in legislating for sexual equality, the readings provide an exciting overview of recent developments. This outstanding collection will be essential reading for any feminist who has doubted the importance of political studies, and any student of politics who has doubted the relevance of feminism.
Extant research on public support for judicial nominees finds that ideological congruence with the nominee is the most important factor in an individual’s decision to support a nominee. The research presented in this article develops the theory that for individuals from underrepresented groups, a shared descriptive identity with the nominee will moderate the negative effect of ideological distance. We test our theory using the nominations of Clarence Thomas, Elena Kagan, and Sonia Sotomayor. Furthermore, we conduct placebo tests to determine whether the effect of ideology is moderated for underrepresented groups when a shared descriptive identity is not present. We find that in the context of the Thomas nomination, a shared racial identity led to increased support for Thomas among liberal African Americans. We find similar effects in the case of Kagan and conservative women. In the case of Sotomayor, we find that a shared ethnic identity led to increased support among conservative Latinos, regardless of gender. We conclude by discussing the implications our findings have for descriptive representation and presidential selection of judicial nominees.
The wives, and more recently, the husbands, of presidential candidates have taken on vital roles in campaigns, acting as surrogates for their partners, mobilizing voters, fundraising, and making high-profile speeches as well as appeals to targeted groups of voters. Despite their importance, presidential candidate spouses represent an under-investigated set of political actors. This project draws on American National Election Study data to analyze public perceptions of the 2012 presidential candidate spouses, Michelle Obama and Ann Romney, and explore how these perceptions compare to attitudes about previous presidential candidate spouses going back to 1992. Since these two spouses represent historic firsts, with Michelle Obama the first Black presidential candidate spouse and Ann Romney the first Mormon presidential candidate spouse, our analysis pays particular attention to the role of gender, race, and religion in public evaluations of these two women. This study also explores how and why candidate spouses are able to remain quite popular even in today’s highly partisan environment. Our results provide insights into key areas of stability and change in the public’s views and expectations for would-be first ladies.
This research uses 2012 National Election Studies data to explore how parenthood shapes the public opinion of women and men. Our analyses show that being a parent shapes attitudes on issues directly connected to children, such as government funding for education and day care, but also on issues less connected to the day-to-day activities of parenting, including the appropriate role of government and abortion. While the label “Walmart Mom” captures the reality that a large and growing number of mothers are struggling economically, the effect of motherhood, on most issues, holds for all women, regardless of socioeconomic status. This article discusses the implications of our findings concerning the politics of motherhood and fatherhood in light of the changing structure of America’s families.
Current research shows that female legislators serve as role models for women. Understudied is how and the extent to which female ministers inspire women to participate in politics. We argue that with their high visibility and greater ability to influence policy, female ministers also serve as role models, but their influence differs depending on the form of political engagement. Using the World Values Survey and additional national-level variables, we employ multilevel modeling techniques to explore how women in the cabinet influence various forms of women's political engagement. We find that the proportion of women in the cabinet has a stronger effect on participation than the proportion of women in parliament. All else being equal, a higher proportion of women in the cabinet increases women's conventional participation (voting and party membership), petition signing, and engagement in peaceful demonstrations, but it does not influence women's participation in strikes or boycotts. Our findings add to current studies of women's political representation, in which ministerial representation is often underexplored or not differentiated from parliamentary representation, and help distinguish various forms of participation. Future research should consider examining a wider variety of women's political roles in other areas of the political arena.
The election of Barack Obama in 2008 was initially viewed as signaling a postracial era in American politics. However, since 2008, race and racial attitudes have appeared to pervade American political discourse and shape political attitudes and behavior to an even greater extent. Using data from the American National Election Studies, this article examines the extent to which white racial attitudes have shaped evaluations of perhaps the most visible African American in politics today after the president: the First Lady, Michelle Obama. Findings show that racial resentment played a large role in evaluations of Michelle Obama, even after controlling for other explanatory variables, which include partisanship, ideology, and affect toward Barack Obama.
In this article I explore the experiences of women of color in the academy through the lens of intersectionality. I use three major lessons of intersectionality research to frame the experiences of women of color in the academy and in particular how identity matters for women of color’s experiences in fields such as political science where their numbers are quite small. Beyond offering an overview of their experiences, I follow with a critical conversation of the supports and intervention strategies necessary to have women of color not only survive to tenure but build sustainable careers. The strategies and interventions rely on a “both/and” strategy, using strategies that are common in the academy coupled with strategies that are uniquely situated for women of color. These strategies and interventions require department heads, deans, and other senior university leaders to act as allies supporting the career-sustaining decisions women of color make that may deviate from the norm. These allies are also critical partners in creating the types of workplace cultures that allow women of color to thrive in their fields.
Gender differences in vote choice, opinion, and party identification have become a common feature of the American political landscape. We examine the nature and causes of gender differences in partisanship using a time series approach. We show that gender differences are pervasive-existing outside of the context of specific elections or issues-and that they are a product of the interaction of societal conditions and politics. We find that from 7979 to 2000, the partisan gender gap has grown when the political climate moved in a conservative direction, the economy deteriorated, and the percentage of economically vulnerable, single women increased. The gender gap is likely to be a continual feature of the American political landscape: one that shapes everything from elite political behavior to election outcomes.
Right around the time Jeane Kirkpatrick's Political Woman (1974) appeared in print, adifferent uprising was taking shape. That very year, a group of radical black feminists began to meet, later calling themselves the Combahee River Collective. The group's name was inspiredby the actions of Harriet Tubman, the former slave who freed nearly 800 slaves during the Civil War at the Combahee River in South Carolina. Black feminism or womanism grew out of black women's dissatisfaction with the women's movement and the black nationalist movement. In 1977, the Combahee River Collective issued a historic and powerful call to recognize the intersectional position of women of color:We are actively committed to struggling against racial, sexual, heterosexual, and class oppression and see as our particular task the development of integrated analysis and practice based upon the fact that major systems of oppression are interlocking.The synthesis of these oppressions creates the condition of our lives. As Black women we see Black feminism as the logical political movement to combat the manifold and simultaneous oppressions that all women of color face. We believe that sexual politics under patriarchy is as pervasive in black women's lives as are the politics of class and race. We also often find it difficult to separate race from class from sex oppression because in our lives they are most often experienced simultaneously. (The Combahee River Collective Statement, April 1977)
This volume presents a research agenda, developed by leading scholars of American politics, suggesting directions that could fruitfully shape the study of women and American politics in the early 21st century. Each contributor was asked to identify existing gaps in knowledge in her area of expertise, to think about new directions for research, and to imagine the kinds of research projects that would both enhance our understanding of the dynamics surrounding women's participation in American politics and facilitate the efforts of those who are working to increase women's representation and influence in politics. The volume includes useful reviews of existing research about various aspects of women's political participation, but the primary focus is on important research questions that pose a challenge for the next generation of scholars. The contributors to this volume suggest approaches, methods, and topics for future research on the following subjects: political recruitment, campaign strategy, money, political leadership, parties and women's organizations, the gender gap in voting and public opinion, media, women of colour, and participation outside of conventional electoral politics. This volume originated from a conference organized by the Center for American Women and Politics (CAWP) at Rutgers University.
The date is October 22, 2004, less than two weeks before the November 3 election that will determine whether the Republican incumbent, George W. Bush, or the Democratic challenger, John Kerry, will serve as President of the United States for the next four years. Polls show the race is very close. John Kerry has recently been interviewed on “Live with Regis and Kelly” and has appeared with his wife, Teresa Heinz Kerry, on the “Dr. Phil” show to talk about his marriage, divorce, and children. On October 22, he campaigns in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, with Caroline Kennedy Schlossberg, daughter of the late President John F. Kennedy, at his side. In his speech to a Milwaukee audience, Kerry tells women voters: You worry when you hear a child, a son or daughter, cough in the middle of the night…. You worry when they go out in the morning just to play, because you can’t afford an illness. You can’t afford an accident. You and your husband worry at the kitchen table after the kids have gone to bed, and when the month’s paychecks don’t cover all the bills…. No matter how tough it gets, no one in the White House seems to be listening. He claims that both health care premiums and the pay gap between men and women have increased under President Bush, and he vows that as President he will raise the minimum wage, helping millions of women who work in low-paying jobs.
This chapter reviews existing research about the political behaviour of women of colour while arguing that women of colour are still largely invisible and thus experience continuing marginality in studies of American politics. Cohen suggests that future researchers should disaggregate the category of women of colour, broaden of the definition of the "political," utilize research findings to help improve the lives of women of colour, and continue to develop basic knowledge on the political participation of women of colour.
This article develops the hypothesis that participation in American politics of minority women differs from political participation of white women. I propose that individuals with multiple subordinate group identities, namely, racial and ethnic minority women, will experience differences in political mobilization and interest in politics and demonstrate different participatory styles than white women do. On the basis of their identity in racial/ethnic identity groups, minority women operate as both racial/ethnic minorities and women in the American polity. As such, the analysis models intersectionality to account for historical narratives, cultural representations, and legal discrimination to show how both race/ethnicity and gender operate in tandem to influence how minority women participate in American politics.
In Black Sexual Politics, one of America's most influential writers on race and gender explores how images of Black sexuality have been used to maintain the color line and how they threaten to spread a new brand of racism around the world today.
This study critically exposes gendered diplomacy roles as representations that limit the performance options of first ladies. When traveling abroad, for example, presidents' wives rarely call attention to or address world affairs. Rather, they typically spotlight humanitarian issues, bolster a president's image or extend goodwill. This investigation, therefore, positions gendered diplomacy roles as objectified representations that suppress the agentic conduct and voice of first ladies. We conclude by proposing correctives in keeping with issues of equity, empowerment, and the ideals of feminism.
We analyze male-female differences in partisanship and presidential voting between 1952 and 1996 to show that the gender gap is a product of the changing partisanship of men. We then focus on the 1992 and 1996 elections to explore two hypotheses about its sources. The Attitude Hypothesis proposes that the gender gap results from underlying gender differences in policy attitudes, and the Salience Hypothesis suggests that the gap results from the different weights men and women apply to their attitudes when making political decisions. This analysis uses logistic regression to estimate the relative contribution of attitude and salience differences to the overall gap in voting and party identification. It finds that both attitude differences and differential salience play a role, although the magnitude of their effects differ in 1996 from what is observed in 1992. In addition, the results suggest that differences in social welfare opinions may be the predominant contributor to the gender gap.
Over the last two decades, women have organized against the almost routine violence that shapes their lives. Drawing from the strength of shared experience, women have recognized that the political demands of millions speak more powerfully than the pleas of a few isolated voices. This politicization in turn has transformed the way we understand violence against women. For example, battering and rape, once seen as private (family matters) and aberrational (errant sexual aggression), are now largely recognized as part of a broad-scale system of domination that affects women as a class. This process of recognizing as social and systemic what was formerly perceived as isolated and individual has also characterized the identity politics of people of color and gays and lesbians, among others. For all these groups, identity-based politics has been a source of strength, community, and intellectual development. The embrace of identity politics, however, has been in tension with dominant conceptions of social justice. Race, gender, and other identity categories are most often treated in mainstream liberal discourse as vestiges of bias or domination-that is, as intrinsically negative frameworks in which social power works to exclude or marginalize those who are different. According to this understanding, our liberatory objective should be to empty such categories of any social significance. Yet implicit in certain strands of feminist and racial liberation movements, for example, is the view that the social power in delineating difference need not be the power of domination; it can instead be the source of political empowerment and social reconstruction. The problem with identity politics is not that it fails to transcend difference, as some critics charge, but rather the opposite- that it frequently conflates or ignores intra group differences. In the context of violence against women, this elision of difference is problematic, fundamentally because the violence that many women experience is often shaped by other dimensions of their identities, such as race and class. Moreover, ignoring differences within groups frequently contributes to tension among groups, another problem of identity politics that frustrates efforts to politicize violence against women. Feminist efforts to politicize experiences of women and antiracist efforts to politicize experiences of people of color' have frequently proceeded as though the issues and experiences they each detail occur on mutually exclusive terrains. Al-though racism and sexism readily intersect in the lives of real people, they seldom do in feminist and antiracist practices. And so, when the practices expound identity as "woman" or "person of color" as an either/or proposition, they relegate the identity of women of color to a location that resists telling. My objective here is to advance the telling of that location by exploring the race and gender dimensions of violence against women of color. Contemporary feminist and antiracist discourses have failed to consider the intersections of racism and patriarchy. Focusing on two dimensions of male violence against women-battering and rape-I consider how the experiences of women of color are frequently the product of intersecting patterns of racism and sexism, and how these experiences tend not to be represented within the discourse of either feminism or antiracism... Language: en
This study analyzes public opinion data on would-be first ladies during the presidential campaign season from 1992 to 2008. By comparing attitudes toward would-be first ladies over the last five presidential cycles, we identify key areas of stability and change in Americans' attitudes toward these individuals. Additionally, survey data are used to explore how attitudes about these women differ across key demographics, to identify factors that shape the public's attitudes concerning presidential candidates' wives, and to explore the impact of these women on their husbands' favorability ratings. The results indicate that spouses who embody the traditional role of first lady tend to be more popular, while spouses who assume an active role in advocating policy, such as Hillary Clinton, garner less support. Most candidate spouses generate highly polarized reactions along partisan lines, although more traditional spouses evoke a less divisive response.
This article outlines three theoretical arguments—socialization, status discontent, and elite cues—that generate competing predictions about the way context shapes gender attitudes. Using hierarchical analysis, we assess the power of these arguments in Latin America, a region that manifests considerable variation on our central explanatory variables and thus offers important theoretical leverage. We find men's gender attitudes to be highly contingent on elite cues and susceptible to backlash effects in response to women's economic advancement. Also, where women lack national representation, distrust of government promotes support for female leadership as an alternative to the discredited (male) establishment. The analysis supports existing individual-level explanations of gender attitudes and demonstrates a connection between diffuse democratic values and gender egalitarianism. The findings suggest that recent advances for female politicians in Latin America may be susceptible to reversal, and they illuminate strategies for strengthening women's equality in the region.
Race and gender are intimately intertwined in the lives of Black women in the United States. Race constructs the way Black women experience gender; gender constructs the way Black women experience race. In the Senate hearings that pitted the word of Clarence Thomas against the sexual harassment accusations of Anita Hill, the great majority of Black women did not believe Hill's accusations. Our analysis will set this disbelief against a background of substantial Black unity on political issues in the United States, Black feminism, television coverage of the event, and Black women's reactions to that television coverage.
Contrary to the conclusion one might reasonably form from the primary White composition of all the major feminist organizations, Black women have usually given stronger support to the women's movement than Whites on surveys (see Table for self-identification as “feminist”). Even as early as 1970, 60% of Black women said they supported efforts to strengthen women's status in society, compared to only 37% of White women (Klein 1987: 26), and in 1972 67% said they were sympathetic to women's liberation groups, compared to only 35% of White women (hooks 1981: 148). Also contravening the impression one might form from the composition of feminist organizations, poor women and working class women are as likely as middle-class women to say on these surveys that they consider themselves “feminist.” The survey data are supported by indepth interviews among all classes of Black women.
NBC, Fox, and CNN networks aired during their first nightly newscasts 324 stories in 2004 and 2008 that featured a visual of the candidates' spouses fulfilling the “escort” role. The spouses during these campaigns were largely seen but not heard. Fox in 2004 aired less than 1% of the candidates' wives speaking when compared to how much video it aired. Likewise, CNN in 2008 aired 2% of the candidates' spouses speaking compared to the amount of video it aired. During the 2008 presidential campaign, viewers saw many more stories featuring the candidates' spouses, especially on the Fox News Channel. During the latter campaign, the networks, especially CNN, also featured much more video of the candidates' spouses. In both elections, the Republican candidates' spouses were clearly much more present on the campaign trail than were their Democratic counterparts.
The role of the First Lady has changed significantly over the last century. While the traditional role has been that of escort or host, a few First Ladies have taken on new activities involving leadership and decision making. At the same time, media coverage of the First Lady has changed. We present two studies examining media coverage of three First Ladies-Nancy Reagan, Barbara Bush, and Hillary Clinton. Study 1 is a content analysis examining stories in the New York Times and Washington Post, and Study 2 is a content analysis examining photographs in Time magazine. The hypotheses predict that the way a First Lady is framed as being politically active or non-politically active will play a role in other aspects of media coverage such as valence of stories and degree of stereotyping in images. The results indicate that the more politically active the First Lady, the more negative the textual coverage; whereas, the more politically active the First Lady, the less stereotypical the photographic coverage. The frames used to cover First Ladies have changed in both media outlets and may depend not only upon political activity but also upon the medium in which the news appears. [Article copies available for a fee from The Haworth Document Delivery Service: 1-800-342-9678. E-mail address: getinfo@haworthpressinc.com <Website. http://www.haworthpressinc.com>].
This essay maps the rise of the rhetorical first lady from Martha
Washington through Laura Bush, contextualizing the public and private
documents of these political women within the gender ideology of their
time. In the process of evidencing the ways in which the first lady
role both empowers and restricts the performance of the first lady, we
illustrate the political contributions of first ladies from 1789 to 1920
in the areas of social politicking and benevolent volunteerism, which
served as political antecedents for the gradual rise of the rhetorical
first lady. When first ladies more routinely spoke from the first lady
pulpit (1920-2002), they mimicked the performances of their predecessors,
taking their volunteer efforts to the public stage. In the process, they
extended the nineteenth-century ideology of republican motherhood; the
twentieth-century republican mother, as performed by many contemporary
first ladies, became a more outspoken advocate on behalf of the nation's
children and other pressing social concerns. While the position often
limited the activities of first ladies to perceived nongovernmental
issues, many expanded the political nature of the position, taking their
social politicking to a public stage and helping to craft a role for
women's participation in the political sphere.
The role of the First Lady has changed significantly over the last century. While the traditional role has been that of escort or host, a few First Ladies have taken on new activities involving leadership and decision making. At the same time, media coverage of the First Lady has changed. We present two studies examining media coverage of three First Ladies-Nancy Reagan, Barbara Bush, and Hillary Clinton. Study 1 is a content analysis examining stories in the New York Times and Washington Post, and Study 2 is a content analysis examining photographs in Time magazine. The hypotheses predict that the way a First Lady is framed as being politically active or non-politically active will play a role in other aspects of media coverage such as valence of stories and degree of stereotyping in images. The results indicate that the more politically active the First Lady, the more negative the textual coverage; whereas, the more politically active the First Lady, the less stereotypical the photographic coverage. The frames used to cover First Ladies have changed in both media outlets and may depend not only upon political activity but also upon the medium in which the news appears.
The symbolic importance of women in the political system has been well documented in recent studies. However, these studies frequently overlook the intersectional effect of race and gender on women’s political engagement. This article expands the existing research on symbolic representation, assessing the extent to which race shapes female candidates’ symbolic political influence. We analyze data from the 2000, 2002, and 2004 NES in order to assess whether the presence of African American female House candidates results in increased political participation among African American women. Our findings show that the presence of black female candidates increases African American women’s likelihood of proselytizing and voting. This research bolsters arguments regarding the salience of identity and its broad and lasting consequences for engagement. It also challenges existing perceptions of how women candidates influence political attitudes and behaviors.
This research examines the relationships between racial consciousness or identity, system blame, and religiosity for African Americans, with a particular focus on the effects of church-based education and activism on racial-group consciousness. This is achieved by clarifying religiosity to include both the civic message communicated and the political activism promoted by religious organizations. Data from the 1984 National Black Election Study are used to examine the connections between various demorgraphic factors, religiosity, religious messages, and several measures of racial identity. Findings indicate that two different messages are presented at places of worship: one communicating civic awareness and the other promoting political activity. Greater exposure to the former tends to produce higher levels of racial identity, while exposure to the latter leads to greater perceptions of power imbalance among groups. Such feelings of racial and power imbalance lead to a greater tendency to blame the governmental system for outcome inequities. Finally, these factors seem to operate slightly differently for men and women.
Prior to the recent reauthorization of the Voting Rights Act of 1965, I was involved in numerous conversations regarding strategies for its renewal. These conversations prompted me to reflect not only on the impact of the Voting Rights Act for African-American citizenship but in particular on the ways in which it did for African-American women what the Constitution and its amendments had previously failed to do. After all, it is not until the passage of this legislation that African-American women are first extended a modicum of citizenship in the United States. © 2006, The Women and Politics Research Section of the American Political Science Association. All rights reserved.