User:Ragazzostar/sandbox

Resources:

- Election Coverage of Women: Good, Better, But Still Not Best.

- The Politics of Candidate Likability.

- Not "With Her": How Gendered Political Slogans Affect Conservative Women's Perceptions of Female Leaders.

- For Women Leaders, Likability and Success Go Hand-in-Hand.

[The Role of Media] (this paragraph will be added at the end of this section)
Through media coverage, sexist tropes against female candidates can be amplified. Media platforms give pundits with sexism-laced rhetoric an opportunity to spread their message. During the 2008 presidential campaign, then-candidate Hillary Clinton began to tear up when speaking about her experiences running. In response, comedian Bill Maher said, “The first thing a woman does, of course, is cry,” despite all of the other campaign moments in which Clinton did not cry.

[Likability] (I will create a new section for this)
All of these factors come together to influence the likability of candidates. Although likability applies to candidates of all gender identities, female candidates are disproportionately affected. As of September 2019, women are underrepresented in Congress (24% of House and Senate seats are held by women, despite comprising over 50% of the United States population), hurdles can exist in electing more women. Sociologist Marianne Cooper writes that women are judged in such different ways than their male counterparts because “their very success violates our expectations about how women are supposed to behave.” She adds that the simple under-representation of women means people don't have the ability to expect women in authority positions. This concept can be applied to government as well: because of female under-representation in government, female candidates are held to preexisting, oftentimes toxic expectations.

These expectations are oftentimes not straightforward. Sexism can be expressed through both implicit and explicit means; this is reflected in how people view women in positions of authority, including female political candidates. For example, explicit bias against women can be seen in attack ads that deride candidates for being feminists, as seen with former House candidate Amy McGrath. An example of implicit gender bias is challenging a woman’s credentials and qualifications, as seen in attacks against Senator Jacky Rosen’s campaign.