The New Hampshire governor is one of only three women US governors.
Women face many barriers to elective office.
They have a harder time than men raising money and, in general, a harder time being taken seriously. According to the study, women candidates for executive office receive on average less newspaper coverage of their positions on issues and more on personal characteristics than do male candidates. In addition, journalists tend to provide less information about women candidates' positions on issues than about men's positions. We knew that the media tended to report more about women's personal characteristics, but what surprised me was that newspapers were reporting less of the backup and evidence for women's issue positions. The study examined newspaper coverage of six races for executive positions in 1998 - five governor's races and one for state attorney general, all with a woman candidate.