Let’s Talk About Sexism: The Differential Effects of Gender Discrimination on Liberal and Conservative Women’s Political Engagement

2020 ◽  
Vol 48 (6) ◽  
pp. 779-791
Author(s):  
Alexa Bankert
Keyword(s):  
Gender Discrimination ◽  
Personal Experience ◽  
Political Engagement ◽  
Survey Experiment ◽  
Representation Of Women ◽  
Female Candidates ◽  
2016 Election ◽  
Using Data ◽  
The Impact ◽  
Conservative Women

As the 2016 election season and the Me Too movement have powerfully demonstrated, sexism is a pervasive force not just in American politics but also, more generally, in women’s everyday lives. While political scientists have focused on the impact of sexism on voters’ evaluations of female candidates and their electoral chances, we know little about the effect of personally experienced sexism on American women’s political engagement. This manuscript tries to address this gap. Using data from the 2016 ANES Pilot Study as well as a survey experiment, I demonstrate that women who have experienced gender discrimination report higher levels of political participation and a higher chance of voting in the general election. However, among conservative women, personal experience with sexism is not associated with this participatory impetus. These findings have implications for the equal representation of women from both ends of the ideological spectrum.

Interculturalism and the Acceptance of Minority Groups

2020 ◽  
Vol 51 (2) ◽  
pp. 135-140 ◽  
Author(s):  
Maykel Verkuyten ◽  
Kumar Yogeeswaran
Keyword(s):  
Minority Groups ◽  
Psychological Research ◽  
Survey Experiment ◽  
Social Psychological ◽  
Negative Attitudes ◽  
Positive Attitudes ◽  
Social Psychological Research ◽  
Using Data ◽  
The Impact ◽  
Situational Effect

Abstract. Multiculturalism has been criticized and rejected by an increasing number of politicians, and social psychological research has shown that it can lead to outgroup stereotyping, essentialist thinking, and negative attitudes. Interculturalism has been proposed as an alternative diversity ideology, but there is almost no systematic empirical evidence about the impact of interculturalism on the acceptance of migrants and minority groups. Using data from a survey experiment conducted in the Netherlands, we examined the situational effect of promoting interculturalism on acceptance. The results show that for liberals, but not for conservatives, interculturalism leads to more positive attitudes toward immigrant-origin groups and increased willingness to engage in contact, relative to multiculturalism.

Seeing Women, Strengthening Democracy

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Magda Hinojosa ◽  
Miki Caul Kittilson
Keyword(s):  
Latin American ◽  
Political Institutions ◽  
Political Engagement ◽  
Political Support ◽  
Democratic Process ◽  
Gender Gaps ◽  
Women's Representation ◽  
Representation Of Women ◽  
Women’S Representation ◽  
The Impact

How does the more equitable representation of women in positions of power affect male and female citizens? We argue that the election of women to political office—particularly where women’s presence is highly visible to the public—strengthens the connections between women and the democratic process. For women, seeing more “people like me” in politics changes attitudes and orientations toward the democratic process. Substantial variation persists across Latin America in gender gaps in political engagement and political support. To assess the effects that women’s officeholding has on these, we pair comparative survey data from Latin American countries with case study evidence from Uruguay. The Uruguayan case offers a unique laboratory for testing the impact of women’s representation in elected positions of power on political engagement and support. Our panel survey of Uruguayan citizens reveals that the expected gender gaps in political knowledge, political interest, and other forms of political engagement were alive and well six weeks before the elections. Yet, just six weeks following the election—after the use of a gender quota had led to a doubling of women’s representation in the Senate—those gender gaps had largely disappeared or had significantly waned. Our findings indicate that far-reaching gender gaps can be overcome by more equitable representation in our political institutions.

Does Gender Matter in Elections?

2019 ◽  
pp. 12-39
Author(s):  
Robert G. Boatright ◽  
Valerie Sperling
Keyword(s):  
Gender Stereotypes ◽  
Presidential Election ◽  
Male And Female ◽  
Theoretical Context ◽  
Female Candidates ◽  
Voter Preferences ◽  
Campaigns And Elections ◽  
2016 Election ◽  
American Elections ◽  
The Impact

This chapter provides the theoretical context for the study by exploring whether and how gender usually matters in campaigns and elections, and the ways in which the 2016 election was different in this regard. The chapter presents the literature on voter preferences for male and female candidates, the impact of gender stereotypes on voting, and the way campaigns and advertisers make use of these stereotypes when trying to promote their candidates or undermine their opponents. The chapter devotes particular attention to recent claims that women are not disadvantaged in contemporary American elections, and it explores ways in which this finding might be applied to the 2016 presidential election, the first to feature a female general election nominee.

High-Profile Female Executive Candidates and the Political Engagement of Women

2016 ◽  
Vol 70 (1) ◽  
pp. 172-183 ◽  
Author(s):  
Miguel Carreras
Keyword(s):  
Political Engagement ◽  
The Political ◽  
National Elections ◽  
Executive Leaders ◽  
High Profile ◽  
Female Candidates ◽  
Executive Politics ◽  
Using Data ◽  
The Comparative Study ◽  
Mass Level

The number of salient female executive leaders has dramatically increased over the last two decades. In many countries, executive politics is no longer an exclusive male domain. Using data from the four waves of the Comparative Study of Electoral Systems surveys and from several waves of the AmericasBarometer surveys, I investigate whether the presence of salient female executive candidates in high-profile national elections influences women’s political engagement in the electoral process. The analysis reveals that the presence of viable female candidates has no immediate impact on women’s political engagement at the mass level.

scholarly journals Do voters prefer gender stereotypic candidates? evidence from a conjoint survey experiment in Japan

2018 ◽  
Vol 8 (3) ◽  
pp. 477-492 ◽  
Author(s):  
Yoshikuni Ono ◽  
Masahiro Yamada
Keyword(s):  
Gender Roles ◽  
Gender Stereotypes ◽  
Female Leadership ◽  
Survey Experiment ◽  
Representation Of Women ◽  
Female Candidates ◽  
Behavioral Expectations ◽  
Conjoint Experiment ◽  
Gender Based ◽  
The Cost

AbstractThe striking under-representation of women in Japan has been partly attributed to gender stereotypes and prejudice toward female leadership among voters. We examine whether and to what extent candidates get rewarded or punished when they deviate from the behavioral expectations associated with their gender roles and images. Our conjoint experiment results in Japan demonstrate that not only are female candidates disadvantaged compared to their male counterparts, but also that they could lose support when they diverge from gender-based behavioral expectations. Our findings suggest that female candidates face a difficult dilemma in that they must weigh the cost of losing support for failing to conform to gender-based expectations, against the general loss of support they would incur for conforming to these expectations.

Glass Floors and Glass Ceilings: Sex Homophily and Heterophily in Job Interviews

Social Forces ◽  
2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lauren A Rivera ◽  
Jayanti Owens
Keyword(s):  
Job Applicants ◽  
Professional Service ◽  
Job Interviews ◽  
Job Interview ◽  
Representation Of Women ◽  
Female Candidates ◽  
Job Candidates ◽  
Negative Effect ◽  
Using Data ◽  
New Hires

Abstract A widely assumed but little-tested theory of employment interviewing suggests that female job applicants will be evaluated more favorably when they are paired with female versus male interviewers. To capitalize on this hypothesized affinity, a number of organizations have begun explicitly pairing female job applicants with female interviewers, in hopes of increasing the representation of women among new hires. However, whether this practice actually results in more favorable outcomes for female job candidates remains an open empirical question. Using data on job interview evaluations from a large, professional service organization, we test the effect of matching female job candidates with female interviewers on interview scores. Highlighting the contextually dependent nature of sex homophily, we find that the effect of being matched with a female interviewer varies by the female candidate’s perceived skill level. Sex matches in job interviews work in favor of those female candidates perceived to be lowest in skill; have a small, statistically nonsignificant negative effect for female candidates of average perceived skill; and have a significant, negative effect for women at the highest level of perceived skill. We argue that matching female candidates with female evaluators in job interviews can operate both as a glass floor that can prevent female applicants from falling below a certain scoring threshold but also a glass ceiling that can prevent the most skilled female applicants from receiving the most favorable interview ratings.

Candidate Selection Rules and Democratic Outcomes

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Scott Pruysers ◽  
William P. Cross ◽  
Anika Gauja ◽  
Gideon Rahat
Keyword(s):  
State Level ◽  
Candidate Selection ◽  
Gender Quotas ◽  
Selection Rules ◽  
Female Candidates ◽  
Internal Structures ◽  
Significant Difference ◽  
Using Data ◽  
The Impact ◽  
Positive Effect

Using data from the Political Party Database, this chapter analyses the impact of the internal structures and rules of political parties on women’s representation (conceptualized as the number of female candidates nominated). It examines the impact of candidate selection methods (inclusive/exclusive, centralized/decentralized), gender quotas, the presence of intra-party women’s organizations, reserved positions in party institutions, and candidacy requirements. The multivariate analysis reveals that state-level gender quotas have a significant positive effect on the number of women nominated, as does the presence of women in positions of authority, such as in parliament and on party executives. Interestingly, the authors find that the formal rules adopted by parties concerning candidate selection (including candidate selection rules) do not make a significant difference when considering representational outcomes.

scholarly journals He Said, She Said: The Impact of Candidate Gender in Negative Campaigns

2016 ◽  
Vol 12 (02) ◽  
pp. 391-414 ◽  
Author(s):  
Stephen C. Craig ◽  
Paulina S. Rippere
Keyword(s):  
Gender Stereotypes ◽  
House Of Representatives ◽  
Survey Experiment ◽  
Appropriate Behavior ◽  
Female Candidates ◽  
Campaign Messages ◽  
Opposite Sex ◽  
The Impact ◽  
Special Risk ◽  
The U.S

Although there is evidence that negative advertising “works” at least some of the time, it has been suggested that going negative poses a special risk for female candidates because it violates expectations about appropriate behavior that are rooted in the traditional gender stereotypes still held by many voters. In this paper, we employ data from a survey experiment to examine gender differences in the effectiveness of one particular attack made by a challenger against an incumbent of the opposite sex in a hypothetical race for the U.S. House of Representatives. Our interest is not limited to the attack itself, however, but extends to the question of how candidates should respond when they are attacked and whether certain types of responses/rebuttals (including counterattacks) work better for men than they do for women, and vice versa, in terms of mitigating the damage inflicted by an initially successful negative ad. Overall, we find little support for the idea that the effectiveness of either attack or response (denial, counterattack, counterimaging, justification, accusing one's opponent of mudslinging) varies significantly according to candidate gender. Further, shared partisanship matters more than shared gender in shaping how voters react to the campaign messages of male and female candidates.

scholarly journals Youth political (dis)engagement and the need for citizenship education: Encouraging young people’s civic and political participation through the curriculum

2017 ◽  
Vol 14 (1) ◽  
pp. 3-21 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ana Isabel Pontes ◽  
Matt Henn ◽  
Mark D Griffiths
Keyword(s):  
Secondary Education ◽  
Young People ◽  
Civic Engagement ◽  
Political Participation ◽  
Citizenship Education ◽  
Political Engagement ◽  
General Election ◽  
The Past ◽  
Using Data ◽  
The Impact

Over the past two decades, there has been a wide-ranging debate about the impact of citizenship education on young people’s political engagement and participation across Britain. Using data from a survey of 1025 young people aged 18 years at the time of the 2010 General Election, we examined the impact that studying for a formal qualification in General Certificate of Secondary Education in Citizenship Studies has on young people’s political and civic engagement. Drawing from the hypothesis that those young people who took the course would be more engaged than those who did not, results demonstrated that there are many differences between the two groups in terms of their political perspectives as well as their past and future patterns of political participation.

scholarly journals The Role of Gender Stereotypes in a Political Campaign:

2020 ◽  
Vol 5 (1) ◽  
pp. 9-16
Author(s):  
Brianna Morrison
Keyword(s):  
Gender Gap ◽  
Gender Stereotypes ◽  
Political Representation ◽  
Party Leaders ◽  
Representation Of Women ◽  
Female Candidates ◽  
Voter Preferences ◽  
Research Findings ◽  
The Impact ◽  
Elected Office

The purpose of this paper is to examine gender stereotypes as a mechanism that maintains the under representation of women within elected office. Focusing exclusively on American politics, this paper will explore the barriers female candidates face in running for office. In 2019, the percentage of women holding seats is 23.7 %. This statistic indicates that women occupy 127 of the 535 seats in Congress. Although a record breaking high, this amount still remains far from achieving parity within Congress. To explore women’s under representation, I ask what is the impact gender stereotypes have on a female’s candidacy? Exploring how gender stereotypes influence both voter preferences and the attitudes of party leaders, I predict that gender stereotypes can discourage both voters and party leaders from pursuing female candidates. Based on my research findings, I argue that the gender gap in political representation is in fact largely rooted in the campaign process that has and continues to present barriers for women seeking elected office.

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