Gendered persuasion in presidential campaigns: Aristotelian analysis of ethos, pathos, logos in Harris-Trump rhetoric

The 2024 United States presidential campaign offered a unique opportunity to examine the intersection of gender and political communication, particularly through the persuasive linguistic strategies of Kamala Harris and Donald Trump. Although extensive scholarship exists on gender bias in political leadership, fewer studies have analyzed how gender expectations shape candidates’ deployment of classical rhetorical appeals. Guided primarily by Aristotle’s concepts of ethos, pathos, and logos, and supported interpretively by Lakoff’s gender and language theory and Role Congruity Theory, this manuscript explores the ways in which Harris and Trump construct credibility, evoke emotional responses, and develop logical arguments in their campaign speeches. The analysis draws on six speeches delivered across three key campaign stages, representing primary election statements, pre-election arguments, and post-election remarks. Speech texts were assembled into a cleaned corpus and coded through NVivo, supported by type-token ratio calculations to capture lexical diversity. Findings show that Harris constructs an ethos rooted in moral legitimacy, service, and collective identity, deploys empathetic and inclusive emotional appeals, and relies on structured, policy-oriented logical reasoning. Trump constructs a contrasting ethos of authoritative dominance, uses fear, anger, and crisis-driven emotional activation, and employs simplified causality to justify assertive political action. The comparative analysis reveals that Aristotelian appeals are deeply shaped by gender norms, with Harris navigating contradictory expectations of authority and warmth, and Trump amplifying traditionally masculine rhetorical conventions without penalty. By demonstrating how persuasive appeals intersect with gendered communicative structures, this manuscript contributes to scholarship in political rhetoric and gender studies, offering insights relevant for understanding contemporary presidential discourse and the challenges faced by female candidates in navigating expectations of leadership, emotion, and public credibility.

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