| Women have been politically active through feminist activity since the United States' founding. Contemporary American women enjoy greater sociopolitical power as a result, but gender gaps remain, most notably in economic opportunity and political representation. Because the mainstream press is an integral part of society's perception of reality, it is paramount in exploring gender, politics and social reform. This thesis explores why gender disparities still exist, through an examination of news narratives regarding the feminist movement/political women from 1917 to 2008.Does the stereotypical treatment of political women increase, decrease, or remain constant over the course of 100 years? To test this question, I conducted a content analysis of newspaper coverage of the three waves of feminism. The method involved analyses of news frames (1st and 2 nd waves) and debate coverage (3rd wave) of then-Sens. Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama in 2008. I used the concept of cultural hegemony, gendered mediation thesis, schema incompatibility theory, and the backlash effect as my theoretical framework.The data from this thesis show that negative coverage persisted from 1917 to 2008 despite the increase of female political influence. In the first and second waves, the majority (67%) of negative frames increased significantly from 1917 to 1970. In the third wave, the candidates' debate behavior was coded then compared to news coverage. Clinton's coverage was more mediated (i.e., less objective and more analytical) and over-emphasized her combative behavior, despite her and Obama being equally combative over the course of two debates. Obama's coverage was more objective and emphasized his combative behavior less. While Clinton favored a "masculine" communication style, Obama favored a "feminine" way of communicating during the debate. The latter finding supports other research and theory that states that a woman who is "gender deviant" will receive reprisals from society.The findings support previous studies that show that the mainstream media marginalized the first two waves of feminism. The data regarding Clinton's coverage support previous research as well, and they point to the resilience of prescriptive gender stereotypes in American society/media, despite the growth of women's social and political influence. |
