Gender Stereotypes and the Perception of Male and Female Candidates

1993 ◽  
Vol 37 (1) ◽  
pp. 119 ◽  
Author(s):  
Leonie Huddy ◽  
Nayda Terkildsen
Author(s):  
Robert G. Boatright ◽  
Valerie Sperling

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.


2021 ◽  
pp. 009365022110233
Author(s):  
Marc Jungblut ◽  
Mario Haim

Using the case of the 2019 European election, the study compares the visual self-depiction of female and male political candidates from all European Union’s 28 member states on social networking sites and their depiction in the news coverage. It thereby investigates to what degree the news coverage and politicians’ self-depiction employs visual gender stereotypes. Moreover, the study presents results on differences in the depiction of male and female candidates across party lines. With the help of computational vision, we demonstrate that, while differences between progressive and conservative candidates are scarce, there are clear differences in the depiction of female and male politicians. These differences resemble emotional gender stereotypes, especially since women are more often depicted as happy. Overall, the study demonstrates that female political communication is still distinct from male political communication for both their self-representation as well as the media’s portrayal of political candidates.


2015 ◽  
Vol 46 (4) ◽  
pp. 182-196 ◽  
Author(s):  
Luke (Lei) Zhu ◽  
Victoria L. Brescoll ◽  
George E. Newman ◽  
Eric Luis Uhlmann

Abstract. The present studies examine how culturally held stereotypes about gender (that women eat more healthfully than men) implicitly influence food preferences. In Study 1, priming masculinity led both male and female participants to prefer unhealthy foods, while priming femininity led both male and female participants to prefer healthy foods. Study 2 extended these effects to gendered food packaging. When the packaging and healthiness of the food were gender schema congruent (i.e., feminine packaging for a healthy food, masculine packaging for an unhealthy food) both male and female participants rated the product as more attractive, said that they would be more likely to purchase it, and even rated it as tasting better compared to when the product was stereotype incongruent. In Study 3, packaging that explicitly appealed to gender stereotypes (“The muffin for real men”) reversed the schema congruity effect, but only among participants who scored high in psychological reactance.


2018 ◽  
Vol 15 (4) ◽  
pp. 746-772
Author(s):  
Zoe Lefkofridi ◽  
Nathalie Giger ◽  
Anne Maria Holli

AbstractDo political gender stereotypes exist in egalitarian settings in which all parties nominate women? Do they matter for candidate selection in systems of proportional representation with multiparty competition and preferential voting? To date, these questions remain unanswered because related research is limited to the U.S. case. Our pioneering study examines political stereotypes in one of the “least likely” cases, Finland—a global forerunner in gender equality. We find, first, that stereotypes persist even in egalitarian paradises. Second, when testing across settings of candidate choice, we find that the effect varies greatly: political gender stereotypes are powerful in hypothetical choices, but they work neither in favor of nor against female candidates when many “real,” viable, experienced, and incumbent female candidates are competing. Although in open-list systems with preferential voting, gender stereotypes can directly affect female candidates’ electoral success, in Finland, their actual impact in real legislative elections appears marginal.


Temida ◽  
2013 ◽  
Vol 16 (1) ◽  
pp. 33-54
Author(s):  
Marissabell Skoric

The study deals with the issue of whether the norms of criminal law make a distinction between male and female sex with regard to the perpetrator of the criminal offence as well as with regard to the victim of the criminal offence and also the issue of whether male or female sex have any role in the criminal law. It is with this objective in mind that the author analyzed the provisions of the Criminal Code of the Republic of Croatia and statistical data on total crime in the Republic of Croatia and the relation between male and female perpetrators of criminal offences. The statistical data reveal that men commit a far greater number of offences than women. Apart from this, women and men also differ according to the type of the criminal offence they tend to commit. Women as perpetrators of criminal offences that involve the element of violence are very rare. At the same time, women are very often victims of violent offences perpetrated by men, which leads us to the term of gender-based violence. Although significant steps forward have been made at the normative level in the Republic of Croatia in defining and sanctioning of genderbased violence, gender stereotypes can still be observed in practice when sexual crimes are in question so that we can witness domestic violence on a daily basis. All of this leads to the conclusion that it is necessary to make further efforts in order to remove all obstacles that prevent changes in social relations and ensure equality between women and men, not only de jure but also de facto.


2017 ◽  
Vol 4 (3) ◽  
Author(s):  
Dr. Shilpi Aggarwal ◽  
Prof. Punam Midha

Adolescence is a very complex and crucial phase of life, where teenagers are caught up in their own web of personal strivings, such as the issues of being, belonging and becoming. Such strivings play a pivotal role in determining their quality of life. Further whether these intrinsic motives (i.e. 3Bs being, belonging and becoming) are being influenced by gender stereotypes is a big issue for the psychologists to explore. Thus the current study is an attempt to explore and compare the levels of being, belonging and becoming (comprising of overall QOL) among male and female adolescents. A purposive sample of 98 adolescents aged 16-18 years, both male (n=44) and female (n=54) was drawn from the colleges of Rewari and Gurgaon districts of Haryana. For measuring personal strivings, Quality Of Life Profile for Adolescent Version Questionnaire (Raphael, Rukholm, Brown, Hill-Bailey & Donato, 1996) was used. Descriptive and inferential statistics were used to assess the levels of being, belonging and becoming and overall quality of life and gender comparison was done on these variables. Results indicated adequate level of personal strivings leading to overall good quality of life among adolescents (total as well as in both male and female separately). Both males and females have similar levels of quality of life. However, females superseded males in spiritual being and community belonging.


2019 ◽  
Vol 9 ◽  
pp. 129-140
Author(s):  
Pragya Paneru

 The Gender gap is one of the most prominent problems in the context of Nepal. Even if Nepal constitution promotes gender equality and equity, there is still a huge gap between male and female. Women lag in literary percentage, nutritional health conditions, ownership, and employment opportunities. One of the obstacles in the path of gender equality is our systemic education materials especially our textbooks which reinforce the stereotypical concept of male and female through textbook representations. Researchers have shown that gender stereotypes have been seen in the textbooks of highly developed countries like America, Australia, and Hongkong. In this context, all the compulsory textbooks of grade four and five prescribed by the Curriculum Development Centre in the context of Nepal were observed. In all the books, stereotypical representations of male and female characters were found. Most of the men and women were presented doing conventional gender roles, and male-centered themes are found in the narratives. This research claims that when conventional attitude regarding gender is transferred to young children, it ultimately reproduces similar gendered personalities and helps to maintain the gender gap. This research uses the concept of ‘technology of power’ by Foucault to interpret gender representations in textbooks. A Ccritical Discourse Analysis has been used to analyze the data from textbooks. The findings suggest that there are biased gender representations suggesting stereotypes and gender binary which could potentially affect the learners both male and female as it fosters false knowledge regarding gender and overburdens the male whereas humiliates the females.


Author(s):  
Rosalyn Cooperman

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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