Women Candidates Going Public: The 30-Second Format.

What happens when women become political candidates? Although more women ran for public office and won in 1990 and 1992 than ever before, entering the public realm that previously has been inhabited only by men is still a relatively new undertaking for women. The public/private paradigm (Garlick, Dixon and Allen, 1992) tells us that the public arena is the realm of men (politicians and businessmen), while the private sphere is the domain of women. When women show signs of possessing power and seek entry into the province of politics or business, they are often criticized for abandoning their traditional family roles. How then, does a woman successfully compete with the political opponent depicted by Theodore Roosevelt as "the man who is actually in the arena?" In particular, how do women develop arguments using the fast and furious format of the 30-second political ad, and does their use of this format perpetuate, modify or serve to disprove preexisting stereotypes about women? Women's roles in the political system have been the subject of considerable scholarly debate. Showalter suggests that women are a muted group interacting within a dominant group of men and that such dominant groups "control the forms or structures in which consciousness can be articulated. Thus, muted groups must mediate their beliefs through the allowable forms of dominant structures" (Showalter, 1983, p. 200). According to Spitzack and Carter "[a] small percentage of women gain access to dominant leadership studies. Membership is composed of privileged women who are acceptable by male standards, women whose leadership skills match those of their male counterparts" (1987, p. 416). They point out, however, that the extraordinary female is identified as well with her muted counterparts and her behavior is accordingly interpreted by gender criteria. In addition, to the extent that woman is defined as an other, "male definitions of competent leadership are adopted and female leadership styles are compared to them". As a rule, the muted group is compared to the dominant group and is found to be deficient. Thus, women leaders are considered less effective and less competent than male leaders. However, women who do exemplify competence in leadership roles are often viewed as "pushy, bitchy, hostile, overly-ambitious". We posit that the 30-second political advertisement is a male-dominant structure through which women must mediate their political "voice" and leadership credentials in order to reach their constituencies. Within this format, women must present both private and public credentials, which results in a fragmented narrative. This narrative form is what Flax describes, in referring to the postmodern writings of Derrida and Foucault, as "a series of 'positions' and a heterogeneous polyphony of voices" (Flax, 1990, p. 32). The individual narratives within the 30-second format are frequently broken and incoherent. Little more than media representations tie them all together. Throughout history, women have been portrayed as other, a comparison that empowers men and sustains a political economy based on gender. Women have been relegated to the private domain and labeled as dangerous and unnatural if insufficiently submissive. Today, private women who enter political life cannot match the sanctioned public power of men and are often criticized for abandoning their private lives. The woman exhibiting power is frequently belittled as incompetent or portrayed as threatening - a "witch" or "dragon lady" (Garlick, Dixon, & Allen, 1992). More men, as well as women, are beginning to accept the idea of a leadership role for women. Socialization patterns and the fact that women continue to have primary child-care responsibility, however, limit the degree to which women are able to enter public office. Women delay their entry into the public world, do not follow the traditional business or legal route into politics, and are disproportionately found in state legislative bodies which are close to their homes (Darcy, Welch and Clark, 1994, p. …