The link between stereotypical leader traits and perceived electability: Do Black women politicians face double jeopardy?

10.31234/osf.io/hx5ks ◽

2021 ◽

Author(s):

Amanda Elizabeth Mosier ◽

Evava Pietri

Keyword(s):

Black Women ◽

White Women ◽

White Male ◽

White Men ◽

Political Polarization ◽

White Female ◽

Future Research ◽

Double Jeopardy ◽

Leader Traits ◽

Voting Intentions

This paper examined whether Black women political candidates face double jeopardy in voter perceptions of electability due to Black women being perceived as having fewer traditional leader traits compared to White male, White female, and Black male candidates. Due to increasing political polarization in the U.S., concerns over electability are at the forefront of many voters’ minds when casting their ballots. Traditional conceptions of electability are built upon racialized and gendered notions of what traits connote an effective leader; thus, women and racial minority candidates are often perceived as less electable compared to White men. However, research has not adequately examined the intersectional aspect of electability bias. The current study proposed a double jeopardy effect: we expected that participants (n = 454) would perceive Black women, compared to White men, White women, and Black men, as lower in competence and leadership ability, which would lead to lower electability perceptions and voting intentions. Unexpectedly, there were mixed findings for the effects of race/gender on competence and leadership ability, and we did not find any evidence that candidate race/gender related to electability or voting intentions. We discuss potential explanations for these null findings and suggest avenues for future research.

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Sister Style

10.1093/oso/9780197540572.001.0001 ◽

2021 ◽

Author(s):

Nadia E. Brown ◽

Danielle Casarez Lemi

Keyword(s):

Black Women ◽

Women Politicians ◽

Skin Tone ◽

Women's Bodies ◽

Deep Dive ◽

Women Candidates ◽

Phenotypic Profile ◽

Gendered Identities ◽

Candidate Evaluations ◽

Hair Texture

Sister Style: The Politics of Appearance for Black Women Political Elites centers Black women’s bodies, specifically their hair texture and skin tone, to argue that phenotypic differences among Black women politicians directly impact how they experience political office and how Black voters evaluate them. The book brings together an interdisciplinary, multi-method, and blended epistemological approach of positivism and interpretivism to ask whether African American women’s appearances provide a more nuanced lens through which to study how their raced-gendered identities impact their candidacies and shape their political behavior. The authors take a deep dive into intersectional theory-building, through which they examine the intra-categorical differences among Black women. They find that Black women vary in their political experiences because of their appearances, and that dominant, Eurocentric beauty standards influence the electoral chances of Black women. They observe that skin tone and hair texture, along with the historical legacies that have shaped the current cultural and political contexts, dictate Black women elites’ political experiences and voter evaluations of them. The book asks the following questions: What do the politics of appearance for Black women mean for Black women politicians and for Black voters who evaluate them? What are the origins of the contemporary focus on Black women’s bodies in public life? How do Black women politicians themselves make sense of the politics of appearance? Is there a phenotypic profile into which most Black women politicians fit? What is the effect of variation in Black women’s phenotypes for candidate evaluations? And how do voters process the appearances of Black women candidates?

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Double jeopardy? The categorization and stereotyping of black women

PsycEXTRA Dataset ◽

10.1037/e633982013-881 ◽

2007 ◽

Author(s):

Amanda K. Sesko ◽

Monica Biernat

Keyword(s):

Black Women ◽

Double Jeopardy

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Afro-Textured Hair and the CROWN Act

Sister Style ◽

10.1093/oso/9780197540572.003.0002 ◽

2021 ◽

pp. 18-45

Author(s):

Nadia E. Brown ◽

Danielle Casarez Lemi

Keyword(s):

Black Women ◽

Historical Development ◽

Women Politicians ◽

The United States ◽

The Political ◽

Political Opportunity ◽

Opportunity Structure ◽

Natural Hair ◽

Open World

This chapter traces the historical development of the politics of Black women’s appearances in the United States by assessing the sociological, political, and legal forces that have built the political opportunity structure for Black women politicians. The chapter presents a thorough overview of Afro-textured hair and Black protective hairstyles to provide a primer on why Black (women’s) hair is political. Through a case study of the Creating a Respectful and Open World for Natural Hair (CROWN) Act, it examines how New Jersey state lawmakers successfully passed legislation to end hair discrimination. In this chapter, we make a connection to contemporary policy and how Black women lawmakers bring uncrystallized issues to legislative bodies.

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Black Women Politicians in the Archives

Atlanta Studies ◽

10.18737/atls20180522 ◽

2018 ◽

Author(s):

Brittany Newberry

Keyword(s):

Black Women ◽

Women Politicians

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Black women at double jeopardy in perceptions of team participation

PsycEXTRA Dataset ◽

10.1037/e578192014-857 ◽

2014 ◽

Author(s):

Leigh Wilton ◽

Diana Sanchez ◽

Laura Quiros

Keyword(s):

Black Women ◽

Double Jeopardy

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Black Women in Double Jeopardy: A Perspective on Birth Control

Health & Social Work ◽

10.1093/hsw/9.2.96 ◽

1984 ◽

Vol 9 (2) ◽

pp. 96-105 ◽

Cited By ~ 2

Author(s):

Ketayun H. Gould

Keyword(s):

Black Women ◽

Birth Control ◽

Double Jeopardy

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Comparing Sexual Harassment Subtypes Among Black and White Women by Military Rank: Double Jeopardy, the Jezebel, and the Cult of True Womanhood

Psychology of Women Quarterly ◽

10.1111/j.1471-6402.2008.00450.x ◽

2008 ◽

Vol 32 (4) ◽

pp. 347-361 ◽

Cited By ~ 39

Author(s):

NiCole T. Buchanan ◽

Isis H. Settles ◽

Krystle C. Woods

Keyword(s):

Black Women ◽

Sexual Harassment ◽

Sexual Coercion ◽

White Women ◽

Double Jeopardy ◽

Gender Harassment ◽

Black And White ◽

True Womanhood ◽

Unwanted Sexual Attention ◽

Cult Of True Womanhood

Drawing upon feminist analyses of double jeopardy and the cult of true womanhood, we examine race, rank, sexual harassment frequency, and psychological distress for Black and White female military personnel ( N = 7,714). Results indicated that White women reported more overall sexual harassment, gender harassment, and crude behavior, whereas Black women reported more unwanted sexual attention and sexual coercion; enlisted women reported higher rates of each subtype than officers. Black enlistees reported more sexual coercion than White enlistees, and enlistees reported more than officers, but there were no racial differences across officers. Black women reported more psychological distress following gender harassment than White women, and enlisted women reported more distress following gender harassment, unwanted sexual attention, and sexual coercion than officers. Although Black officers were less distressed at low levels of sexual coercion, as coercion became more frequent, their distress increased significantly, and at high levels, all groups were similarly distressed.

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