Women and Politics Essay -- Sarah Palin

Introduction (Literature Review)When pistillates started entering the political scene in the united States in significant numbers in the latter parts of the twentieth century, they were faced with a number of predicaments. One of these predicaments centered around the lecture they were to use in the political arena. As members of the other group, women were forced, in more ways, to adopt the dustup patterns of their male counterparts. As Blankenship & Robson pointed out in their research, erstwhile women were allowed a modest entr sic onto the political playing field, they either had to speak the paramount language of power and prove themselves tough enough or preserve forever the linguistic sissy (354). Within the past couple of decades, however, the roles of women conjointly in society and politics have changed drastically, prompting some to hesitancy whether feminine political discourse still exists and if so, to what extent.Around the mid to late-1980s, books on the t opic of feminine discourse in politics primary began to surface in abundance possibly as a top of the Democratic Partys nomination of Geraldine Ferraro as the first female vice presidential candidate on a major caller ticket in 1984. Originally, feminine discourse was merely a speech pattern characterized by its personal tone, references to personal experience, inductive reasoning, the use of anecdotes and examples as evidence, audience participation, and identification between the speaker and audience (Campbell, 1989, p. 13). Since that time, however, it has evolved tremendously. In fact, Dow and Tonn (1993) take a firm stand through and through their study of Texas governor Ann Richards speeches that this new feminine speech was an alternative political philosophy ... ... is incredibly new and full of ambiguity. As mentioned before, there is a great deal of knowledge that has yet to be uncovered on the topic of gender and political discourse in particular with regards to female candidates at the field level. As the scope of politics in America continues to change, and as more female politicians become figures on the national stage, the importance of research of this nature. However, through this particular study at hand, I intend to highlight the commonalities in female politicians performance of their feminine identities through discourse in hopes of coming to a conclusion of what feminine political discourse looks like in this decade. In doing so, I hope to depict the groundwork for future discussion on the evolution of discourse utilise by female candidates seeking political offices, a topic that is rarely discussed.