The Contingent Effects of Sexism in Primary Elections

2021 ◽  
pp. 106591292110431
Author(s):  
Danny Hayes ◽  
Jennifer L. Lawless
Keyword(s):  
Political Communication ◽  
Attitudes Toward Women ◽  
Primary Elections ◽  
Gender Attitudes ◽  
Female Candidate ◽  
Communication Framework ◽  
Female Candidates ◽  
Campaign Rhetoric ◽  
Sexist Attitudes ◽  
Male Candidate

Although the landscape for female candidates in U.S. politics has improved, research continues to find that many voters possess sexist attitudes. We rely on a standard political communication framework to help reconcile sexism in the electorate with increasingly favorable outcomes for women in primary elections. Based on two national survey experiments, we first demonstrate that in the absence of gendered campaign rhetoric, sexism is a weak predictor of support for female candidates on both sides of the political aisle. We then show, however, that when a male candidate attempts to activate sexism among voters by attacking a female opponent, gender attitudes become more salient—but not to the woman’s disadvantage. In a Democratic primary, gendered attacks backfire and lead to a significant boost in support for the female candidate. On the Republican side, a male candidate does not face the same backlash, but the attacks do very little to depress his female opponent’s support. While the persistence of hostile attitudes toward women has slowed the march toward gender equality in society, our experimental results suggest that sexism exerts only contingent effects in primary elections and not systematically to female candidates’ detriment.

scholarly journals Gender-Equality Concerns and Political Attitudes toward Women in the 2019 Legislative Election: Evidence from Pelalawan

2021 ◽  
Vol 24 (3) ◽  
pp. 220
Author(s):  
Andhik Beni Saputra ◽  
Azhari Setiawan ◽  
Citra Puspita Febriani
Keyword(s):  
Gender Equality ◽  
Random Sampling ◽  
Sampling Method ◽  
Attitudes Toward Women ◽  
Political Attitude ◽  
Voter Behavior ◽  
Significant Determinant ◽  
Female Candidate ◽  
Female Candidates ◽  
Members Of Parliament

The presence of women in Indonesian politics remains underrepresented whereas cultural and societal aspects pose critical influence in determining voter behavior toward female candidates. The aim of this article is to examine voter behavior regarding female candidates and the probability for them to be elected as members of parliament. We apply quantitative method by developing three models representing three combinations of predictor variables, (i) socio-demography, (ii) gender- equality concern, and (iii) political attitude towards female candidates as determinants towards female candidate electability. The study took place in Pelalawan Regency in Riau Province, by analyzing 400 respondents with equal numbers of men and women from various socio-economic backgrounds through clustered random sampling method. We tested these hypotheses and our three models by utilizing logistic regression analysis. The result shows that political attitude toward female candidates (Model 3) are the strongest coefficient and most significant determinant for female candidate electability. The study also revealed that female candidate’s electability in Pelalawan Regency is lower than male candidate’s electability among male respondents. On the other hand, female candidate’s electability is higher than male candidate’s electability among female respondents. Moreover, we also found that education determines female candidate’s electability where the more educated an individual is, the more he/she tends to vote for female candidates.

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

2011 ◽  
Vol 4 (2) ◽  
pp. 338-354 ◽  
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.

scholarly journals Wave or Trend

Commonwealth ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 21 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Joshua J. Weikert
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Gender Equality ◽  
Survey Data ◽  
The United States ◽  
Political Context ◽  
Election Cycle ◽  
Female Candidate ◽  
Female Candidates ◽  
Elected Office

The 2018 elections saw a record number of women running for elected office in the United States and in Pennsylvania, but whether this represents a temporary wave or a lasting trend is not clear. Using a combination of survey data; interviews of new candidates, elected officeholders, and party officials; and election data, this study examines the gender equality gains of 2018 in Pennsylvania’s legislature in historical and political context. The data provide evidence that formal recruitment of female candidates was common (but not universal), that the number of women running for and winning office increased by historic (and not just significant) levels, and that a persistent and consistent motivation was discernible in large portions of the candidate body. Survey measures of female candidate persistence—whether they plan to run again or recruit new candidates—also indicate that women intend to remain similarly active after the 2018 election cycle has come and gone.

scholarly journals Polyculturalism and Sexist Attitudes

2014 ◽  
Vol 38 (4) ◽  
pp. 519-534 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lisa Rosenthal ◽  
Sheri R. Levy ◽  
Maria Militano
Keyword(s):  
Cultural Change ◽  
Belief Systems ◽  
Social Dominance Orientation ◽  
Attitudes Toward Women ◽  
Cross Sectional ◽  
Right Wing Authoritarianism ◽  
Socially Constructed ◽  
Sexist Attitudes ◽  
Confounding Variables ◽  
Sexist Beliefs

In cultural contexts in which sexist beliefs are considered traditional, shifts toward gender equality represent an example of cultural change. Polyculturalism is defined as the belief that cultures change constantly through different racial and ethnic groups’ interactions, influences, and exchanges with each other and, therefore, are dynamic and socially constructed rather than static. Thus, polyculturalism may involve openness to cultural change and, thereby, would be expected to be associated with lower sexist attitudes. Four studies (both cross-sectional and longitudinal) with undergraduate and community samples in the Northeastern United States tested whether endorsement of polyculturalism is inversely associated with sexism, above and beyond potentially confounding belief systems. Across studies, for both women and men, endorsement of polyculturalism was associated with lower sexist attitudes for two classes of sexism measures: (a) attitudes toward the rights and roles of women and (b) ambivalent sexist attitudes toward women. Associations remained significant while controlling for potentially confounding variables (colorblindness, conservatism, egalitarianism, gender and ethnic identity, gender and race essentialism, multiculturalism, right-wing authoritarianism, and social dominance orientation). Greater openness to criticizing one’s culture mediated polyculturalism’s association with attitudes toward the rights and roles of women but not with ambivalent sexist attitudes toward women. Studying polyculturalism may provide unique insights into sexism, and more work is needed to understand the mechanisms involved.

Choosing the Velvet Glove: Women Voters, Ambivalent Sexism, and Vote Choice in 2016

2018 ◽  
Vol 3 (1) ◽  
pp. 3-25 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lorrie Frasure-Yokley
Keyword(s):  
Women Of Color ◽  
White Women ◽  
Ambivalent Sexism ◽  
Attitudes Toward Women ◽  
Vote Choice ◽  
Gender And Politics ◽  
Sexist Attitudes ◽  
National Election Study ◽  
Economic Anxiety ◽  
The One

AbstractThis paper examines the extent to which ambivalent sexism toward women influenced vote choice among American women during the 2016 Presidential election. I examine how this varied between white women and women of color. The 2016 American National Election Study (ANES) features several measures from the Ambivalent Sexism Inventory (ASI)—a scale developed by Glick and Fiske (1996) to assess sexist attitudes toward women. An index of these measures is used to examine the extent to which ambivalent sexist attitudes influenced women's vote choice for Donald Trump, controlling for racial resentment, partisanship, attitudes toward immigrants, economic anxiety, and socio-demographics. On the one hand, my findings indicate that ambivalent sexism was a powerful influence on women's Presidential vote choice in 2016, controlling for other factors. However, this finding, based on a model ofall women votersis misleading, once an intersectional approach is undertaken. Once the data are disaggregated by gender and race, white women's political behavior proves very different than women of color. Among white women, ambivalent sexist views positively and significantly predicts vote choice for Trump, controlling for all other factors. However, for women of color, this relationship was negative and posed no statistical significant relationship to voting for Trump. Scholarship in gender and politics that does not account for group differences in race/ethnicity may present misleading results, which are either underestimated or overestimated.

Trumping Politics as Usual

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Robert G. Boatright ◽  
Valerie Sperling
Keyword(s):  
Presidential Election ◽  
Election Campaigns ◽  
Major Party ◽  
Male And Female ◽  
Female Candidate ◽  
Female Candidates ◽  
Femininity And Masculinity ◽  
Persistent Pattern ◽  
Political Weapon ◽  
Democrats And Republicans

Who is tougher? In many elections, candidates frame their appeals in gendered ways—they compete, for instance, over who is more “masculine.” This is the case for male and female candidates alike. In the 2016 presidential election, however, the stark choice between the first major-party female candidate and a man who exhibited a persistent pattern of misogyny made the use of gender—ideas about femininity and masculinity—more prominent than ever before. This book explores the Trump and Clinton campaigns’ use of gender as a political weapon, and how the presidential race changed the ways in which House and Senate campaigns were waged in 2016. The thesis of this book is that Donald Trump’s candidacy radically altered the nature of the 2016 congressional campaigns in two ways. First, it changed the issues of contention in many of these races by making gender more central to the general election campaigns of both Democrats and Republicans. Second, expectations that Trump would lose the election influenced how candidates for lower office campaigned and how willing they were to connect their fortunes to those of their party’s nominee. The fact that Trump was expected to lose—and was expected to lose in large part because of his sexist and other bigoted comments—caused both major parties to direct more of their resources toward congressional races, and led many Republican candidates—especially women—to distance themselves from Trump.

Psychology of Women Courses Changing Sexist and Sex-Typed Attitudes

1980 ◽  
Vol 4 (4) ◽  
pp. 587-590 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sandra Vedovato ◽  
Reesa M. Vaughter
Keyword(s):  
College Students ◽  
Developmental Psychology ◽  
Attitudes Toward Women ◽  
Female Students ◽  
Male Students ◽  
Psychology Class ◽  
Psychology Of Women ◽  
Sexist Attitudes ◽  
Female Professor ◽  
Students Attitudes

Changes in the sexist attitudes of college students participating in psychology of women courses were examined. Male students maintained mildly antiliberationist attitudes toward women and traditional, masculine-typed self-descriptions over the course semester. Female students expressed significantly more liberal attitudes toward women and shifted from feminine-typed to androgynous self-descriptions over the course semester. In a developmental psychology class with the same feminist, female professor, male students' attitudes toward women remained mildly antiliberationist whereas female students' attitudes toward women became significantly more liberal over the course semester.

scholarly journals President George W. Bush: “Pale Green” Responses to the Environment?

2009 ◽  
Vol 29 ◽  
pp. 371-385
Author(s):  
Byron W. Daynes ◽  
Glen Sussman
Keyword(s):  
Political Communication ◽  
Careful Evaluation ◽  
White House ◽  
Environmental Domain ◽  
Campaign Rhetoric ◽  
Environmental Diplomacy ◽  
Environmental Legacy ◽  
Pale Green ◽  
Administrative Actions

George W. Bush suggested during the 2000 campaign for the presidency that he would be an eco-friendly president. During his eight years in the White House, did the president use the power and resources of his office to carry out his campaign rhetoric about protecting the environment? This study examines the Bush approach to environmentalism by focusing on four important perspectives— political communication, legislative leadership, administrative actions, and environmental diplomacy—in an effort to better understand Bush’s environmental record. After a careful evaluation of the Bush presidency and the environmental domain, we offer our judgment about the Bush environmental legacy.

scholarly journals Fighting Money Politics and Shamanic Practices

2020 ◽  
Vol 5 (2) ◽  
pp. 169
Author(s):  
Guno Tri Tjahjoko
Keyword(s):  
Literature Review ◽  
Qualitative Methods ◽  
Secondary Data ◽  
Primary Data ◽  
Group Discussions ◽  
Female Candidate ◽  
Female Candidates ◽  
Video Studies

This study aims to describe the efforts of female candidates to break the practice of money politics and the influence of shamans in the 2018 Sriharjo subdistrict election (pilkades). The author used qualitative methods with a case study of the Sriharjo village-head election in Bantul Regency. The author collected primary data through interviews, in-depth group discussions, and observations. Secondary data were collected through a literature review, online articles, photos, and video studies of the pilkades process. The findings of this study show the practice of money politics carried out by “snipers,” whose job is to distribute envelopes containing money from house to house from night to dawn one day prior to election day. In addition, candidates also provide assistance and facilities to the community to get their votes. The success team also uses the services of shamans by spreading flowers in certain areas with the aim of spiritually binding people so as not to vote for other candidates. Responding to the competitor’s strategy, the female candidate employed the politics of conscience to empower the community, monitored the snipers of other candidates, built networks, and broke the spiritual powers.

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