scholarly journals What Do Pennsylvania Voters Think about Gender and Women’s Representation?

Commonwealth ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 21 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Sarah Niebler ◽  
A. Lanethea Mathews-Schultz

Despite ongoing interest in the role of gender in American elections, highlighted most recently by Hillary Clinton’s historic bid for the presidency in 2016 and the 2018 “Year of the Woman” elections, recent studies have shown that gender alone is not enough to explain voter behavior. This is especially true in an increasingly ideologically polarized landscape in which party and ideology retain significant explanatory power regarding electoral outcomes. The saliency of gender identity and gender issues may also vary across time and context. Moreover, voters may not have full information about the underrepresentation of women or of the consequences of gender imbalances in elective institutions, raising uncertainty about whether women’s representation in politics matters to voters. In this article, using data from a unique exit poll, we examine the extent to which knowledge about women’s representation and perceptions about gender and women’s issues mattered to Pennsylvanians’ vote choice in the 2016 and 2018 elections. We find that neither gender nor party alone can explain men’s and women’s political behavior, but rather that gender and party interact in complex ways. Although party continues to be the best predictor of vote choice, gender matters to how voters understand and explain women’s underrepresentation in politics—a finding that has important implications for furthering gender equality in politics in the future.

Author(s):  
Leslie A. Schwindt-Bayer

In this introductory chapter of Gender and Representation in Latin America, Leslie A. Schwindt-Bayer argues that gender inequality in political representation in Latin America is rooted in institutions and the democratic challenges and political crises facing Latin American countries. She situates the book in two important literatures—one on Latin American politics and democratic institutions, the other on gender and politics—and then explains how the book will explore the ways that institutions and democratic challenges and political crises moderate women’s representation and gender inequality. She introduces the book’s framework of analyzing the causes and consequences of women’s representation, overviews the organization of the volume, and summarizes the main arguments of the chapters.


2019 ◽  
Vol 52 (4) ◽  
pp. 865-881
Author(s):  
Sarah Wilkins-Laflamme ◽  
Sam Reimer

AbstractWith a decisive Liberal party electoral victory in 2015, observers are now wondering if religious conservatism's role in the Canadian political landscape is waning. Using data from the Canadian Election Study (CES) from the years 2004 to 2015, we find that respondents’ attitudes toward same-sex marriage and women working outside the home have moved left on the spectrum among both the general population and more religious voters. However, this does not go hand in hand with a decline in the effect strength of religiosity on the Conservative vote, which remains significant across the five federal elections examined in this study. Conservative religious voters now make up a smaller share of the adult population, but their issue positions on sexual morals and gender roles, along with the wider conservative value orientation these issues represent, remain important in their vote choice.


Genus ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 76 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Roberto Impicciatore ◽  
Francesca Tomatis

AbstractGiven the many linkages between education and family behaviour, the expansion of higher education especially among women in recent decades may have important consequences for fertility in Europe. This is a crucial factor in both the New Home Economics (NHE) theory and the Second Demographic Transition (SDT) that predict a negative association between fertility and education. However, more recently, the Gender Revolution (GR) approach has emphasised the role of gender egalitarianism both in society and within households as a boost for fertility. By adopting a comparative perspective on six European countries, this paper reports our research on the effect of education on the fertility choices in light of the foregoing three different theoretical explanations. Using data from the second wave of Generation and Gender surveys (GGS) for Bulgaria, Czech Republic, France, Germany, and Poland, and the ISTAT survey “Famiglie e Soggetti Sociali” for Italy, we estimated the propensity to have the first and the second child birth on women born between 1940 and 1979 by means of multiprocess hazard models.For the first childbirth, the influence of education on fertility behaviours not only remains important but also tends to increase among younger cohorts. This result matches the NHE and SDT explanation, suggesting a similar evolution towards an erosion of the family. Conversely, for the second childbirth we found marked differences among countries suggesting an East-West polarisation giving support to the GR approach. However, peculiarities for the Italian case linked to a tempo effect emphasize the need to go beyond the West-East dichotomy.


Author(s):  
Mona Lena Krook

Comparative research highlights electoral systems as an important variable explaining cross-national variations in women’s political representation worldwide. This chapter summarizes key patterns in women’s representation globally. It maps existing research on gender and electoral systems, focusing on the role of electoral formulas, district and party magnitude, and ballot structure in shaping women’s opportunities to be elected. It then identifies three areas within the gender literature that have foregrounded elements of electoral systems to generate new insights into central dynamics of political life. The chapter concludes with a discussion of emerging areas of research related to gender, electoral systems, and political representation.


The Forum ◽  
2018 ◽  
Vol 16 (4) ◽  
pp. 515-545
Author(s):  
Anne M. Cizmar ◽  
John McTague

Abstract This paper examines the role of authoritarianism in the 2018 US congressional elections. In particular, we assess whether the issues that have historically been central to the authoritarian divide in the American electorate were salient in the campaigns of several important Senate races. We demonstrate that authoritarian attitudes played a consistent, significant role on presidential vote choice, party identification, and numerous policy areas in the 2016 presidential election using data from the American National Election Studies. Using case studies of six Senate races in the 2018 midterm elections, we find that authoritarianism was more muted than in 2016, and that the role of authoritarianism varied considerably depending upon the race. States with stronger Trump support in 2016 featured authoritarianism more heavily than states with less Trump support in 2016, but authoritarianism overall was not as prominent in 2018 as in 2016. Overall, Senate candidates relied on traditional campaign messages related to candidate qualifications, personal attacks, the economy, and other messages less central to authoritarianism.


Author(s):  
Anna Sender ◽  
Bruno Staffelbach ◽  
Wolfgang Mayrhofer

The role of the human resource management (HRM) function has significantly evolved since the 1980s. Specifically, the HRM function has become more strategic, with the most senior human resource professional (the HRM director) often being an integral member of the top management team. The profile and competencies of the HRM director, however, are crucial in shaping the strategic role of HRM in organizations. This chapter provides a comprehensive overview of the role of contextual factors related to both external environment (e.g., national culture, industry) and internal environment (e.g., ownership, the role of the HR function, performance, employee turnover) for the profile of the HRM director. Using data from the Cranfield Network on International Human Resource Management study, the chapter demonstrates that significant differences in the profile of an HRM director in terms of education, experience, and gender exist across contexts. This study contributes to the HRM literature by empirically exploring the differences in the profile of the human resource director across contexts and elucidating reasons for these differences.


2016 ◽  
Vol 22 (11) ◽  
pp. 1376-1386 ◽  
Author(s):  
Franklin N Glozah ◽  
David J Pevalin

Little is known about the role of age and gender in the association between psychosomatic symptoms and common mental illness in Ghanaian adolescents. This cross-sectional study examined age and gender as moderators between psychosomatic symptoms and common mental illness using data from a school-based survey ( N = 770). Males reported higher psychosomatic symptoms and common mental illness, while younger adolescents reported higher common mental illness only. Psychosomatic symptoms were positively associated with common mental illness, but age and gender did not moderate this association. Interventions aimed at reducing the prevalence rate in psychosomatic symptoms are crucial in decreasing common mental illness in Ghanaian adolescents.


1992 ◽  
Vol 21 (3) ◽  
pp. 325-348 ◽  
Author(s):  
Emily Grundy ◽  
Anne Harrop

ABSTRACTCo-residence between adult children aged 35 or more and their elderly parent(s) or parent(s)-in-law has been investigated using data from the Office of the Population Censuses and Surveys (OPCS) Longitudinal Survey and the 1985 General Household Survey supplement on informal carers. Overall 4 per cent of adults lived with a parent or parent-in-law but this proportion varied considerably with age, marital status and gender. Socio-economic differentials in co-residence were also found. These suggested that where the child is the provider of support to an elderly parent co-residence may be associated with socio-economic advantage. Differentials in co-residence rates and differences between co-residence data from the Longitudinal Study (LS) and data on co-resident carers from the General Household Survey (GHS) also point to the important role of elderly people as providers of support to adult children. In conclusion, the implications of these data for policies of community care are considered.


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