Gender Images in Swiss National Election Campaigns

Gender differences matter in the electoral process. On the voters’ side, it has been shown that gender stereotypes influence voters’ evaluation of political candidates (e.g., Matland and King, 2002) and their communication skills (e.g., Aalberg and Jenssen, 2007) in a way that is often detrimental to women’s chances to get elected. On the candidates’ side, several studies show that female candidates can gain a strategic advantage when they play to these stereotypes, for instance by emphasizing typical “female” issues (e.g., Herrnson et al., 2003; Schaffner, 2005). In contrast, others show that they can benefit from breaking with gender norms, by emphasizing masculine trait competencies (e.g., Bauer, 2016). In this Paper, we go one step back and examine the campaign strategies by male and female candidates in the 2011 and 2015 Swiss national parliamentary elections. Based on a sample of political newspaper advertisements, we analyze how the candidates themselves craft their public image. We predict that one major gender difference relates to the role of leadership experience outside of the political realm: male candidates are much more likely to emphasize their professional background to signal competence and experience than female candidates.