UI Press | Erika Falk | Women for President: Media Bias in Nine Campaigns

Women for President

Media Bias in Nine Campaigns

An updated analysis of gender bias in press coverage of presidential campaigns, now including Hillary Clinton's 2008 bid

Newly updated to examine Hillary Clinton's formidable 2008 presidential campaign, Women for President analyzes the gender bias the media has demonstrated in covering women candidates since the first woman ran for America's highest office in 1872. Tracing the campaigns of nine women who ran for president through 2008--Victoria Woodhull, Belva Lockwood, Margaret Chase Smith, Shirley Chisholm, Patricia Schroeder, Lenora Fulani, Elizabeth Dole, Carol Moseley Braun, and Hillary Clinton--Erika Falk finds little progress in the fair treatment of women candidates. The press portrays female candidates as unviable, unnatural, and incompetent, and often ignores or belittles women instead of reporting their ideas and intent. This thorough comparison of men's and women's campaigns reveals a worrisome trend of sexism in press coverage--a trend that still persists today.

"Falk does an excellent job of pointing out what has changed and what has stayed the same in media coverage of women's political participation (why, for example, always the preoccupation with clothes and hair!)."--Library Journal

"Falk confronts prejudice head-on. Her comprehensive volume presents solid evidence for actual media biases."--On Campus With Women

"This study could not be more timely. . . . Highly recommended."--Choice

"The book is full of examples . . . that clearly demonstrate that female presidential candidates have been subjected to blatantly discriminatory treatment by the press."--American Journalism

"A must read for political operatives and voters across America."--Donna Brazile

Erika Falk is the associate program chair for the master's degree program in communication at Johns Hopkins University and the former research director of the Washington office of the Annenberg Public Policy Center.