With significantly more women entering the political arena, exploring the differences and similarities in the campaign communication styles and strategies of female and male candidates has become more important. Studies investigating the role of gender in campaign communication have become more feasible, from a methodological perspective, since the 1992 election when record numbers of women began seeking and winning political office.

Televised political ads provide an important resource for documenting the communication styles and strategies of political candidates as they remain one of the few candidate-controlled (rather than media-mediated) communication tools of the modern political campaign. The importance of television advertising to today's political campaign is underscored by the significant financial resources devoted to such communication.

Television advertising and the control it offers over campaign messages, especially ...