Using Public Interest Communication to Construct Women’s Political Candidate Identities Amid Impossible Expectations

Authors

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.32473/jpic.v9.i2.p4

Abstract

Research on women as political candidates has described the negotiations in public presentation that women make to overcome gendered power ideals that have reigned supreme in U.S. democracy since its inception. This qualitative study explores the experiences of 37 women candidates as they engaged in public interest communications strategies to construct their identities and share their values, priorities, and personal narratives to their publics. Participants’ public image leaned toward as sincere a representation of the inner self as context allowed. Yet the context was heavily affected by gender, party, and other identities. The circumstances in which participants did not feel comfortable presenting authentically identify areas of challenge that still exist for women to fully participate in democracy.

Author Biographies

Andrea Lorenz, Kent State University

Dr. Andrea Lorenz is an Assistant Professor of Journalism at Kent State University in the School of Media and Journalism. Her research focuses on intersections between political communication, journalism, and democracy.

Teresa Tackett, University of Arkansas

Dr. Teresa Tackett is an Assistant Professor of Advertising and Public Relations at the University of Arkansas in the School of Journalism and Strategic Media. Her research focuses on the role of communication in driving social change, particularly within public relations and advertising.

Downloads

Published

2025-12-29

Issue

Vol. 9 No. 2 (2025)

Section

Original Research

License

Copyright (c) 2025 Andrea Lorenz, Teresa Tackett

Creative Commons License

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License.

By submitting to the Journal of Public Interest Communications, the author(s) agree to the terms of the Author Agreement. All authors retain copyrights associated with their article contributions and agree to make such contributions available under a Creative Commons Attribution License (CC-BY NC) 4.0 upon publication. 

Author Agreement

This agreement takes effect upon acceptance of the Submission for publication in JPIC.

  • I hereby grant to the University of Florida (“the University”) the non-exclusive right to retain, reproduce and distribute the Submission in whole or in part, in print and electronic format and in any medium. This agreement does not represent a transfer of copyright to the University.
  • The University may make and keep multiple copies of the work for purposes of security, backup, preservation and access; and may migrate the work to any medium or format for the purpose of preservation and access.
  • I represent and warrant to the University that the work is my original work and that I have the authority as sole author or I have the authority on behalf of my co-authors to grant the rights contained in this agreement. I also represent that the work does not, to the best of my knowledge, infringe or violate any rights of others.
  • I further represent and warrant that I have obtained all necessary rights to permit the University to reproduce and distribute the work, including any third-party material. Alternatively, I represent that my use of any third-party material is allowed because the material is not in copyright or I have performed a fair use analysis and reasonably believe my use is permitted. Any content owned by a third party is clearly identified and acknowledged within the work.
  • I grant these same rights to the George A. Smathers Libraries at the University of Florida. Additionally, I grant the right to both the University and Smathers Libraries to enter into agreements with third-party entities and the rights necessary to host, print, index and abstract the Submission.

Open Access and Self-Archiving

JPIC follows an open-access publishing model, meaning that all articles will be publicly accessible on the Internet immediately upon publication. I understand that I may share the submitted manuscript (preprint) of the Submission on the Internet at any point before or after publication, with a citation and link to the final version of record to be added as soon as the issue is available. I may disseminate the final peer-reviewed version at any point after publication.

Creative Commons License

JPIC applies a Creative Commons Attribution License (CC-BY NC) 4.0 to encourage sharing and reuse of content and to maximize the impact of published research. By publishing in JPIC, I agree that the terms of this license will be applied to the Submission. Smathers Libraries (copyright@uflib.ufl.edu) may be able to offer additional information.

By granting this license, I acknowledge that I have read and agreed to the terms of this agreement.