Women Candidates Going Public: The 30-Second Format

Abstract

This paper examines how women candidates go public in election campaigns. Political advertising theory and practice suggest that women should present both their public and private worlds to voters, yet the public/private paradigm maintains stereotypes of men dominating the public world while women are relegated to the private sphere. Analysis of selected 1992 Year of the Woman political ads, in the light of 1980s theory and practice, reveals women using more appeals from the private world, in fragmented, polyphonic narratives.