Questioning the president: Examining gender in the White House press corps

Abstract

In 2014, President Barack Obama made history by only calling upon women journalists during a domestic news conference with the White House press corps. To capitalize on and examine this critical first in journalism, this study analyzed the potential influence of a journalist’s gender in White House press corps news conferences with President Obama a year before and a year after the all-female conference. The content analysis examined what political issues journalists emphasized in presidential news conferences and whether these issue emphases varied (a) by journalists’ gender and (b) before and after the all-female conference. Results revealed that, to some extent, men and women emphasized different issues. Furthermore, there were marked shifts after the all-female conference. First, women were called upon more often. Second, women emphasized several issues more than men. In particular, women became predominant on questions dealing with so-called ‘masculine’ or ‘hard news’ issues, for example, macroeconomics and foreign trade. This work suggests that gender, in all of its permutations – be it the journalist’s gender, the gendering of issues, or the gendering of occupational spaces – matters and may affect journalists’ lines of questioning.