There are two ways in which Hillary could conduct campaign strategy with regards to her gender: she, like other recently elected female politicians, could try to ignore or mitigate her gender and instead focus on issues that speak to her broadest base of voters; in other words, run her campaign as a male candidate would. Her second option would be to try and capitalize on her difference to garner support from voters that she would otherwise not be able to reach.
Hillary seems to be taking a two-pronged campaign strategy, combining both of the above approaches. On the one hand, she is attempting to downplay the fact that she is The Female Candidate, and instead emphasizing that she is running for office because she beleives that she is the best person, irrespective of gender, for the job. On the other hand, however, she is using her gender to play to a very specific audience: the female voter. For example, as the article mentioned below states, she “appears to be splitting the difference, playing up domestic issues that could have a special appeal to women without presenting them as such”.
This article explains how Hillary is making specific attempts to capture the female vote. This may be a smart strategy for Clinton because she is seen as a polarizing candidate; therefore, it would be strategic for her to focus on certain voting blocs as opposed to the general public. In recent elections, women have made up 51-54% of the vote; they also tend to vote for Democratic candidates. In the past presidential election, the female vote did not end up making or breaking the outcome (when Bush, the Republican candidate, won); however, if Hillary were able to garner the entire female voting bloc as a whole, she would surely have a decided advantage over the other candidates. In order to do so, this article points out that Hillary must consider the different demogrpahics within the female vote itself. For example, married women tend to have higher voter turnout rates, so Hillary should focus on galvanizing single women. Also, the issues that women tend to care about most are health care, child care, and education, so she should be sure to address these topics. Iraq will pose a particularly thorny issue for Hillary, for most women currently favor withdrawal and an end to the war; however, originally, Hillary voted for the war and must now delicately show how her views have changed without seeming too doveish and making sure to steer clear of being labeled a weak candidate (which is an especially tender issue, given her gender).
It will be interesting to see whether Hillary’s dual approach in fact manages to gain support from the female voting bloc while also maximizing her chances with the rest of the electorate, or if it will leave her too reliant on a group of voters that care more about a candidate’s stand on the issues than her gender.
