Women's issues, women's place: Gender‐related problems in presidential campaigns

This essay is a feminist rhetorical analysis of recurring gender‐related problems in presidential campaigns, focusing particularly on the 1992 campaign. I examine 39 speeches from the Democratic and Republican National Conventions (1972–1992) for discussion of women's issues, women's roles, and men's roles, and conclude that the anti‐feminist “backlash”; of the 1980s has taken a serious toll on public attention to women's issues. When politicians spoke of women's concerns, they largely ignored actual issues, and instead focused their attention on women's roles in society. Men's roles were also a central focus, as each presidential candidate sought to convince the voting public to cast him as the Leading Man.

Key concepts:

• Gender roles
• women's issues
• presidential campaign discourse
• convention speeches
• anti‐feminist backlash