As both Hillary Clinton and Sarah Palin have matured into their political states, they have faced a road of scrutiny getting there. Both women strive to be respected, seen as equal, and given the respect their male counterparts receive. However, since both are prominent women in male dominated field, they have to be careful of how they choose to represent themselves. Images of these women are heavily circulated and often end up on the covers of magazines. These two images are from different issues of Newsweek Magazine. The first one depicts Hillary Clinton, from the torso up, with her arms folded across her chest. She has on a smug expression and is looking directly at the camera, although the camera angle seems to be just lower, as if the viewers are looking up at Clinton. The image is anchored by several captions, the most noticeable one saying "Hillary's War" and subtitled "How She's Shattering Glass Ceilings Everywhere." The fact that the words "Hillary's War" are the most noticeable grab the reader's attention because of their information value (Rose, 147). These words catch our attention because our eyes are adjusted to scanning from left to right to read texts in order to produce a message. The most important things are then consequentially placed on the left side of the page. In this case, "War" is a polarized term that captivates the reader so much as to read the article to find out what Hillary Clinton is responsible for. If the viewer decides to read the rest of the subtitle, they will find out that Hillary Clinton is "Shattering Glass Ceilings Everywhere." The text at the top of the cover, "150 Women Who Shake the World" also helps anchor the picture of Clinton. With these two captions, it is clear that this magazine cover is then reinforcing and praising Hillary Clinton as an advocate for change. It gives her power by showing her body, yet unintentionally helps foster the idea that Hillary Clinton is a grumpy, old woman. She signifies this by having her arms crossed and turning slightly to the side. Clinton is also giving the viewer her shoulder, which signifies cold and unsympathetic. Her image is also in front of a marble statue, a painting, an elegant sofa, and a lamp. All these signs represent the connotation of luxury and wealth. This connotations are then also associated with Clinton because when read in full, the text seems to say that she is rich because she is surrounded by all these fine things, and that wealth also implies her knowledge and power over the audience.

Sarah Palin's Newsweek Magazine cover is very different from that of Hillary Clinton's. Palin's cover shows just a close up of the left side of her face. This viewpoint represents fetishistic scopophilia, in which "the female figure is represented simply as a beautiful object of display" according to Laura Mulvey (Rose, 118). Palin seems to be staring directly at the viewer, which also appears to be the puctnum of the image. Her eye is so captivating and powerful, that its gaze catches the reader and draws them into the magazine. Directly to the right of this photograph is the anchoring caption "She's One of the Folks (And That's the Problem)." This represents Palin as a problem to politics, most likely because of her uncanny background from Alaskan governor to Vice Presidential candidate. This problem, or threat, can also be seen as Palin's gender. She is "one of the folks" as in an average female citizen, and is a problem because she is breaking through into a man's world, while keeping her female identity. Palin's image on the Newsweek cover does not allow for much power of connotation to be made since it is a close up of her face against a white background. The words, however, paint us a picture of how Palin is dangerous because she did not have to hide her femininity the way the picture suggests, but rather, she instead brought it into politics in an attempt to get female voices out there and break barriers like Hillary Clinton did.