how likely would you be to vote for a qualified female presidential candidate from your party?

 suffrage movement: 19 th amendment grants women right to vote in 1920  would you vote for a woman for president if she were qualified in every other way? asked in1937  chosen time frame › equal rights amendment › geraldine ferraro › “hillary effect”  presidency as a marker of general female equality

 many other nations have elected female heads of state › even countries perceived as having more gender inequality than the u.s.

 hess and grant study from 1983 – influence of television on gender roles  zaller study from positive constructs of public opinion  atkeson study from 2003 – media influence on political opinions of women

agenda setting  news stories set the agenda for public discourse cultivation  television viewing helps form beliefs about the world based on viewing experiences  this reflects and generates contemporary standards and gender roles these influence public opinion formation.

 increased females in professional roles on popular television over time  increased news media coverage of female congresswomen over time

news media  female senators and representatives  systematic sampling  television news transcripts from lexisnexis  23 of 118 women entertainment  start with nielsen top 20 › eliminate reality, sports, movies › take top 10  to seasons.  200 shows

news media  manifest news content  “representative” or “senator” and “congress”  term plus one year  average mentions per year over term entertainment media  latent entertainment content  0 = minimally professional, 1= somewhat professional, 2 = highly professional  totaled numbers for season year = level of professionalism

 priming by mentioning women in traditional roles will decrease public opinion support for president › one time snapshot parallels long-term media effect?  anticipated result: very small effect

 two questions › how likely would you be to vote for a qualified female presidential candidate from your party? › (primed): given that women often have to juggle the demands of family and work, how likely would you be to vote for a qualified female presidential candidate from your party?

 on a five-point scale, the mean changes › unprimed: › primed:  likert scale › Range from highly likely to highly unlikely

 consistent upward trend in both news and entertainment media  parallels public opinion trend