TY - JOUR TI - Campaigns as gendered institutions DO - https://doi.org/doi:10.7282/T3BP01VQ PY - 2012 AB - This dissertation begins the process toward understanding the many ways in which campaigns are gendered institutions. Specifically, I ask how candidates and campaign professionals negotiate the gendered landscape on which campaigns are contested. Through analysis of 2008 and 2010 senate and gubernatorial races and a survey of campaign consultants, I investigate the role that gender stereotypes and dynamics play in drafting campaign images, messages, and tactics. Findings demonstrate to what extent female candidates adapt to the masculine norms of U.S. campaigns or, instead, challenge their prescriptions for strategy and behavior. In addition to exposing institutional constraints on women, probing internal campaign decision-making in mixed-gender races illuminates potential shifts in men’s campaign strategy when gender becomes salient. Existing scholarship describes gender’s function in political behavior, electoral outcomes, and even campaign output and communications. However, research to date has done little to investigate how gender functions in campaign strategy development and why campaigns cultivate the images and messages that they do. Engaging candidates and campaign professionals directly remedies this omission and provides direct insight to the interaction between institutional norms, identity, and individual actions. Moreover, recognizing campaign professionals as political actors who perceive and perform gender also highlights potential differences in campaign strategizing by gender. KW - Political Science KW - Political campaigns--United States KW - Women politicians--United States KW - Political science--Sex differences--United States LA - eng ER -