AMES, Iowa — As Hillary Clinton prepares to make her first speech as a president candidate on Tuesday, researchers at Iowa State University plan to add it to their archive of female political leaders.
Thousands of political ads and speeches are housed in the of the “Women’s Political Communication” archives at the Carrie Chapman Catt Center for Women and Politics.
Kelly Winfrey, a lecturer at the Catt center, said the collection helps compare messaging strategies of the same candidate in different elections.
“You can go back and see what’s been done and look for successful and unsuccessful candidates. What was effective an what was not.”
Based on archive research and Clinton’s announcement for president, Winfrey says Clinton’s approach will look much different than it did eight years ago.
“I think it goes to show that she is trying to represent a variety of people by putting herself more as wanting to represent them instead of just her talking.”
Winfrey says in Clinton’s last attempt at the White House she lacked focus, a clear message, and balance when it came to the topic of her gender.
“Our research found that she talked a lot about stereotypical masculine traits like being strong, being tough, being a fighter which are good qualities but didn’t talk enough about those warmer and compassionate type of traits.”
The university began collecting the political videos in 2006. There are more than 300 women who make the up the database, with more than 2,000 pieces of archived material.
To learn more about the women in politics click http://www.womenspeecharchive.org/.