In April 2015, the Barbara Lee Family Foundation (BLFF) and the Center for American Women and Politics (CAWP) launched Presidential Gender Watch 2016, a project to track, analyze, and illuminate gender dynamics in the 2016 presidential election. Together, BLFF and CAWP have spent decades conducting research on women running for office. With the help of expert scholars and practitioners, Presidential Gender Watch worked for 21 months to further public understanding of how gender influences candidate strategy, voter engagement and expectations, media coverage, and electoral outcomes in campaigns for the nation’s highest executive office. On social media, in written analyses, and via public presentations, we raised questions, suggested answers, and sought to complicate popular discussions about gender’s role in the presidential race by drawing upon the wealth of research and expertise that could best inform the gender dialogue on presidential politics.

Our final report, Finding Gender in Election 2016: Lessons from Presidential Gender Watch, outlines key ways in which gender was at play in the presidential election.

Highlights Full Report (Digital Version) Full Report (PDF)