From How Stuff Works:
Whether good, bad, or ugly, female political candidates’ looks making the news hurts their electability. A survey jointly sponsored by Name It. Change It., the Women’s Media Center and She Should Run found that whenever the media report on the appearance of women running for office, the outcome is negative — no matter whether news items praise or critique her pantsuits and sensible updos. Based on the responses of 1,500 likely male and female voters, including an oversample of 100 women, the survey revealed that the appearance reporting hurt the women candidates the most in the areas of “being in touch, being likeable, confident, effective and qualified.” This new research resonates with past studies on how political candidate looks affect voter impressions. A 2012 study, for instance, conducted by UC Irvine political scientist Shawn W. Rosenberg found that people who looked the most competent were the most likely to win over prospective voters by a margin of 12 percentage points.

For the full story, please visit http://blogs.howstuffworks.com/2013/04/09/media-mentions-of-female-polit....