The Growing Influence of Gender Attitudes on Public Support for Hillary Clinton, 2008–2012

Hillary Clinton's 2008 presidential run brought with it an unwelcome reminder of the added obstacles women candidates often encounter. From “Iron my Shirt” banners to debates regarding whether Clinton was overly emotional or an ice princess, we were faced with gender stereotypes that have often plagued women in leadership roles. Her campaign strategy attempted to counteract preconceived notions of female candidates by accentuating Clinton's toughness and strength, even to the point of trying to “outmale” her opponents (e.g., see Lawrence and Rose 2010). The result was a prime example of the double bind in which women who appear strong are then seen as unlikeable (Jamieson 1995). However, Clinton reached new levels of popularity from 2008 to 2012 as secretary of state and a presumed presidential contender in 2016. This leads us to question whether she was able to successfully navigate the double bind—perhaps through additional offsetting information or her ability to competently handle the masculine position of secretary of state—or if public attitudes have evolved to a point where gender no longer matters in the assessment of political candidates.

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Voter Support for Women Candidates

Political Science ◽

10.1093/obo/9780199756223-0307 ◽

2020 ◽

Author(s):

Rosalyn Cooperman

Keyword(s):

Gender Stereotypes ◽

Personal Characteristics ◽

Central Research ◽

Party Affiliation ◽

Women Candidates ◽

Opinion Polling ◽

Female Candidates ◽

The Us ◽

Race Ethnicity ◽

Elected Office

Voter support for women candidates in American politics may best be summed up by the often-repeated phrase, “when women run, women win.” This statement indicates that when compared to male candidates running in a similar capacity, such as candidates for open seats in which no incumbent is present, female candidates are equally likely to win elected office. Voters, therefore, seem equally likely at face value to support female candidates. However, the literature on voter support for women candidates suggests that this voter support may be more conditional in nature. A central research thread on voters and women candidates is how voters perceive women candidates and, in turn, their electability. Research on gender stereotypes and candidates examines voter perceptions of the traits they typically associate with men and women, candidates, and officeholders and the circumstances under which these traits make gender and political candidacy more or less attractive. The literature on political party and voter support for women candidates explores how gender and party affect levels of voter support and is offered as one explanation for the party imbalance in women’s representation with female Democrats significantly outnumbering female Republicans as candidates and officeholders. Researchers have also examined how voters evaluate other components of women’s candidacies, including their party affiliation, race, ethnicity, and sexual orientation. In addition to personal characteristics, scholars have explored how the type or level of office impacts voter support of women candidates with certain types of elected positions often considered more or less well suited for women candidates. More recently, a thread of research on voter support for women candidates has focused on women’s absence from the nation’s highest elected position—the US presidency. Scholars, and the candidate herself, have assessed voter support for or opposition to Hillary Clinton’s unsuccessful presidential bids in 2008 and 2016. This line of research includes public opinion polling that measures both the abstract idea of electing a woman president as well as electing a specific woman president, namely Clinton.

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Financial Support for Women in Arkansas State Legislative Campaigns

American Review of Politics ◽

10.15763/issn.2374-7781.1983.4.0.56-64 ◽

1984 ◽

Vol 4 ◽

pp. 56-64

Author(s):

Deb Hilliard

Keyword(s):

Financial Support ◽

Public Attitudes ◽

Political Support ◽

Lower Percentage ◽

Success Rates ◽

Campaign Strategy ◽

Female Candidate ◽

Female Candidates ◽

Gender Based ◽

State Legislative

Following the 1982 elections women held 13 percent of the state legislative seats nationwide, and the figure for Arkansas stood at 5.2 percent. In fact, only four states currently have a lower percentage of women serving in their state legislatures. The question, "Why so few?" opens a Pandora's Box of possible explanations for the markedly low percentage of female members of the Arkansas Legislature. However, recent studies exploring the entrance of women into elective office tend to focus either on the self-perceptions of the involved elites of this group, on societal and political support or opposition arising from traditional sociopolitical constraints, or on sheer numbers of female candidates and their success rates relative to their male counterparts. Because political scientists have only recently begun to devote serious attention to the area, there exists only a modest literature exploring campaign strategy and voter choice where a female candidate enters competition. To date, discussions of mass public attitudes toward political women, as well as the candidates' own self-images, have neglected the relationship of the electorate, and the candidates themselves, to the level of financial support given female candidates. Yet, it is generally accepted that female aspirants find it difficult to raise campaign chests which equal or outweigh those of their male opponents, with an additional variation in the sources of financial support (Mandel, 1981: 184-5). This paper is addressed to the gender-based levels of campaign contribution receipts reported in 1982 by candidates for the Arkansas General Assembly, with the intent of ascertaining what pattern, if any, exists in the amounts and sources of legislative campaign contributions received by candidates according to gender.

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Women in Corporate World: Walking the Tight Rope

International Journal of Indian Psychology ◽

10.25215/0401.145 ◽

2016 ◽

Vol 4 (1) ◽

Author(s):

Dr Gayatri Phadke ◽

Sharda Ratna Sitaraman

Keyword(s):

Women Leaders ◽

Gender Stereotypes ◽

Cultural Factors ◽

Women In Leadership ◽

Gender Stereotyping ◽

Double Bind ◽

Corporate World ◽

Cultural Conditioning ◽

Tight Rope

In this article, we bring to you different aspects of gender stereotyping and its deeper implications on women working in the corporate. The study conformed to Double-Bind Dilemma for Women in Leadership: Damned if You Do, Doomed if You Don’t, Catalyst series sponsored by IBM Corporation, which also examined barriers to women’s advancement, and indicated how gender stereotypes can create several predicaments for women leaders. It indicated how cultural conditioning and unintended biases at workplace seemed to playing a big role in gender stereotyping. The study also indicated that the dilemma of double bind affected not only the perceptions of others, but also perceptions of women themselves, leading to a confusion in the style of leadership to be adopted at workplace, and reduced confidence in their selves. Many women respondents also attributed the underestimation of their capability to their upbringing, and socio-cultural factors that pre-determined the superiority of men over women in society leading to women ‘belittling’ themselves in some manner.

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Distribuição de Género em Cargos de Liderança na Área Médica em Portugal: O Exemplo das Candidaturas aos Órgãos da Ordem dos Médicos 2017-2019

Acta Médica Portuguesa ◽

10.20344/amp.12955 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 33 (13) ◽

Author(s):

Miguel Cabral ◽

Margarida Paixão ◽

Andreia Leite

Keyword(s):

Medical Association ◽

Confidence Interval ◽

Gender Inequality ◽

Social Role ◽

Women In Leadership ◽

Leadership Roles ◽

The South ◽

Women Candidates ◽

The Sustainable Development ◽

Participation Of Women

Introduction: Gender equality is one of the sustainable development goals. Low participation of women in leadership roles is an example of gender inequality. In Portugal, there are few studies regarding gender inequality in medical leadership roles. Therefore, we aimed to analyse gender distribution of candidates to regional bodies of the Portuguese Medical Association.Material and Methods: We extracted data from the candidates to the regional bodies of the Portuguese Medical Association (2017 - 2019 mandate) from the Association’s magazine (issue number 175). We calculated the percentage of women candidates, overall and stratified by list, region and roles. We obtained observed-vs-expected ratios overall and by region, and respective 95% confidence intervals, assuming a Poisson distribution. Finally, we conducted a sensitivity analysis, excluding substitute candidates.Results: Women accounted for 37% of the candidates (regional variation: 29% - 51%). The national observed-vs-expected ratio was 0.74 (95% confidence interval: 0.58; 0.92), mainly driven by the ratio from the South Region: 0.58 (95% confidence interval: 0.41; 0.80). Women ran mainly for alternate candidates and secretary positions (56% and 54% respectively).Discussion: Gender differences were identified, particularly in the South, regarding the frequency and type of candidacy. Previous works have identified maternity, the social role of women and perceptions regarding the leadership roles as possible reasons to explain such differences. Our analysis is limited to specific leadership roles and an election moment; further studies should be pursued.Conclusion: We identified a lower than expected participation of women in the elections for the Portuguese Medical Association. When they run, women are found mainly in less relevant positions or with less potential to be elected (secretary or alternate candidate). A deeper understanding and measures to fight gender inequality in leadership roles are required.

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Not in His Image: The Moderating Effect of Gender on Religious Appeals

Politics and Religion ◽

10.1017/s1755048311000149 ◽

2011 ◽

Vol 4 (2) ◽

pp. 338-354 ◽

Cited By ~ 18

Author(s):

Brian R. Calfano ◽

Paul A. Djupe

Keyword(s):

United States ◽

Experimental Design ◽

Gender Stereotypes ◽

United States Senate ◽

Moderating Effect ◽

Campaign Strategy ◽

Female Candidate ◽

Female Candidates ◽

Voter Perceptions ◽

Male Candidate

AbstractReligious appeals have been part and parcel of campaign strategy for decades. Most often, however, these appeals to have come from men, but little is known about howwomenwould fare using religious appeals on the campaign trail. To remedy this, we used an experimental design to examine voter reaction to religious appeals from a female and a male candidate competing for an open United States Senate seat. We find that women's use of religious appeals is governed by the dynamics of tokenism — reinforcing traditional gender stereotypes and serving to reduce voter support of the female candidate. This suggests that women must be careful in using a key campaign tool traditionally employed by men, and that this may affect the extent to which female candidates can effectively shape voter perceptions on the campaign trail.

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The Inclusion Calculation

10.1093/oso/9780190936198.001.0001 ◽

2019 ◽

Cited By ~ 5

Author(s):

Melody E. Valdini

Keyword(s):

Political Parties ◽

The Political ◽

Rational Action ◽

Leadership Roles ◽

Political Careers ◽

Women Candidates ◽

Novel Approach ◽

Large N ◽

Gender Quota ◽

Open The Doors

Power-holders and gate-keepers in political parties and governments continue to be primarily men. How are they responding to the increasing numbers of women who are seeking leadership roles in politics? Are they angels who embrace equality and fling open the doors to power? Are they devils who block women at every turn? Are they powerless against the increasing tide of feminism and inadvertently succumbing to the push for power from women? Most likely, these male elites are primarily concerned with maintaining their own power, which drives their reaction to women’s political inclusion. The Inclusion Calculation examines women’s inclusion from the perspective of men in power and offers a novel approach to understanding differences in women’s descriptive representation. The book argues that with declining legitimacy it is valuable for male elites to “strategically feminize,” associating themselves or their party with women, because citizens will interpret the increased presence of women as meaning that the party or government is becoming more honest, cooperative, and democratic. Using a combination of case studies from Latin America, Europe, and Africa, as well as large-N analyses, the book provides evidence that male elites are more likely to increase the number of women candidates on party lists or adopt a gender quota when “feminizing” is advantageous to the political careers of men. Women’s exclusion from government, then, is not a product of their own lack of effort or ability but rather a rational action of men in power to keep their power.

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The Troublesome “Paradox of Gender Quotas”: A Few Methodological Notes on the Margin of an Article by Michael Jankowski and Kamil Marcinkiewicz

Politics & Gender ◽

10.1017/s1743923x19000011 ◽

2019 ◽

pp. 1-8 ◽

Cited By ~ 1

Author(s):

Maciej A. Górecki

Keyword(s):

Simultaneous Elections and the Rise of Female Representation in Indonesia

Journal of Current Southeast Asian Affairs ◽

10.1177/1868103421989716 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 40 (1) ◽

pp. 50-72

Author(s):

Luky Sandra Amalia ◽

Aisah Putri Budiatri ◽

Mouliza KD. Sweinstani ◽

Atika Nur Kusumaningtyas ◽

Esty Ekawati

Keyword(s):

Presidential Elections ◽

Institutional Innovation ◽

Presidential Candidate ◽

Female Representation ◽

Legislative Elections ◽

Women Candidates ◽

Presidential Candidates ◽

Female Candidates ◽

Election Results ◽

Legislative Election

In the 2019 election, the proportion of women elected to Indonesia’s People’s Representative Assembly ( Dewan Perwakilan Rakyat, DPR) increased significantly to almost 21 per cent. In this article, we ask whether an institutional innovation – the introduction of simultaneous presidential and legislative elections – contributed to this change. We examine the election results, demonstrating that, overall, women candidates did particularly well in provinces where the presidential candidate nominated by their party won a majority of the vote. Having established quantitatively a connection between results of the presidential elections and outcomes for women legislative candidates, we turn to our qualitative findings to seek a mechanism explaining this outcome. We argue that the simultaneous elections helped women candidates by easing their access to voters who supported one of the presidential candidates, but who were undecided on the legislative election. Rather than imposing additional burdens on female candidates, simultaneous elections assisted them.

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Female Candidates, Islamic Women’s Organisations, and Clientelism in the 2019 Indonesian Elections

Journal of Current Southeast Asian Affairs ◽

10.1177/1868103420988729 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 40 (1) ◽

pp. 73-92

Author(s):

Muhammad Mahsun ◽

Misbah Zulfa Elizabeth ◽

Solkhah Mufrikhah

Keyword(s):

Structural Barriers ◽

Women Candidates ◽

Electoral Success ◽

Female Candidates ◽

Central Java ◽

Grassroots Support ◽

Nahdlatul Ulama ◽

And Gender ◽

Women's Networks

This article analyses the factors leading to the success of women candidates in the 2019 elections in Central Java. Recent scholarship on women’s representation in Indonesia has highlighted the role that dynastic ties and relationships with local political elites play in getting women elected in an environment increasingly dominated by money politics and clientelism. Our case study of women candidates in Central Java belonging to the elite of the Nahdlatul Ulama (NU)-affiliated women’s religious organisations Muslimat and Fatayat shows that strong women candidates with grassroots support can nonetheless win office. Using the concepts of social capital and gender issue ownership, and clientelism, we argue that women candidates can gain a strategic advantage when they “run as women.” By harnessing women’s networks and focusing on gender issues to target women voters, they are able to overcome cultural, institutional, and structural barriers to achieve electoral success even though they lack resources and political connections.

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Political Dynasties and Women Candidates in Indonesia’s 2019 Election

Journal of Current Southeast Asian Affairs ◽

10.1177/1868103421991144 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 40 (1) ◽

pp. 28-49

Author(s):

Sri Budi Eko Wardani ◽

Valina Singka Subekti

Keyword(s):

Gender Bias ◽

Electoral System ◽

Regional Government ◽

Local Power ◽

Detailed Data ◽

Power Structures ◽

Women Candidates ◽

Female Candidates ◽

Political Networks ◽

Political Success

In this article, we provide evidence suggesting that almost half (44 per cent) of female candidates elected to Indonesia’s national parliament in 2019 were members of political dynasties. Providing detailed data on the backgrounds of these candidates, including by party and region, we argue that several factors have contributed to their rise. Parties are increasingly motivated – especially in the context of a 4 per cent parliamentary threshold – to nominate candidates who can boost their party’s fortune by attracting a big personal vote. Members of political dynasties (especially those related to regional government heads and other politicians entrenched in local power structures) have access to financial resources and local political networks – increasingly important to political success in Indonesia’s clientelistic electoral system. We show that the rise of these dynastic women candidates is not eliminating gender bias within parties, but is instead marginalising many qualified female party candidates, including incumbents.

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