Search Results

This chapter presents a general model of female legislative recruitment based on literature on established Western democracies. It argues that institutions are important in female legislative recruitment. Outcomes depend on the supply and demand of female candidates, and the way institutions translate these factors into recruitment outcomes.

This chapter examines the changes in women’s representation in Lithuania. Women are expected to make significant inroads in their quest for political power. Although the number of women in political power declined from the Soviet period, those who are active in politics have been able to carve out more authentic places for themselves, with meaningful power. Women’s representation and recruitment are increasingly included in the political agenda as the democratic system stabilizes and recovers from the chaos of regime change.

This chapter examines women’s representation in East and West Germany. The variables that explain when and where women achieve representation work as well in the East as in the West. In both regions, proportional party lists produce more women deputies than single member districts. Each party tends to elect similar numbers of women in both regions, suggesting that party recruitment and election policies have similar effect in both regions.

This chapter examines the demand for women in the legislatures of post-communist Central and Eastern Europe. There is currently little demand for female legislators, with a prevailing attitude in many countries that men make better political leaders. Although this view is most evident among older less educated citizens, it is sufficiently echoed by younger and better educated women. Support for the women’s movement in Eastern and Central Europe appears to be for a non-feminist, maternalist movement; men and women generally believe that the role of homemaker and mother is essential to a woman’s happiness.

This chapter analyzes a series of questions related to citizen's attitudes about gender issues. These items are included in the 2006 Pilot Study. The examination of gender stereotypes suggests that many people see few differences in the traits and abilities of women and men, but that those who do perceive differences tend to do so in predictable ways. These new items also demonstrate that gender stereotypes transcend party, although gender and party interact in meaningful ways in some circumstances. The examination of voters' gender preferences for elected officials reveal the importance (or lack thereof) of descriptive representation to voters and the potential for women candidates to mobilize women in the public to greater political involvement. Finally, the analysis of these new items clearly indicates that while they are related to other gender attitudes, gender stereotypes and gender preferences are distinct attitudes held by voters.

In 1928 Cunningham became the first woman from Texas to run for the U. S. Senate. Like most women who aspired to Congress in this period, she lost. This chapter argues that whilst prejudice against women political candidates and difficulty raising campaign funds were potent factors in keeping women out of elective office, political style has also played an important part. The disinclination of many, like Cunningham, to adopt the male model of electioneering rendered them politically ineffective. Female political culture, shaped by voluntary associations, favored educational campaigns focused on in-depth discussion of issues and rejected the attack-style combat that men used. Believing that the electorate shared her disgust with the status quo and would respond enthusiastically to an “intelligent” political campaign, Cunningham was deeply disillusioned when the male candidates ignored her and the voters elected the most aggressive contender.

Chapter 4 offers the first of three empirical tests of party effects, particularly party identity. It examines state legislators’ policy preferences in 42 states in the 1998 election period (before the 1999-2000 legislative session) to determine the extent to which party identity underlies women state legislative candidates’ policy preferences on women’s issues. From these issue positions in the election, it is clear that Democratic and Republican women hold partisan positions on most issues in the election, including women’s issues. Even though significant gender differences exist for women of both parties on several issue items, partisan women hold positions more similar to the men in their own party than the women in the other party, even on issues directly related to women. Empirically, this chapter demonstrates that women legislators’ party identity significantly divides their issue preferences in the election, before they enter the institutional partisanship of the legislative environment.

This chapter provides the theoretical framework for the project, relying on theories of stereotyping and information from social psychology. The framework supports the notion that gender stereotypes should be less important to the success of women candidates than previous research has suggested. A discussion of the limitations of stereotypes supports the hypothesis that traditional political influences will be more important than stereotypes. The methodological limitations of existing work are also discussed, with an emphasis on the experimental and hypothetical literatures. Finally, the chapter lays out the survey at the heart of this project and its justification.

This chapter examines different points in the process of elections to consider the influence of gender on issues of candidate quality and campaign decisions. The background of women and men candidates is compared to assess candidate quality. The television advertisements and campaign websites of women and men candidates are compared to examine the issue campaigns these candidates run. The goal here is to see whether candidates use their campaigns to support or counter gender stereotypes. The evidence suggests that women and men campaign on similar issues and use political party, not gender stereotypes, to determine their issue images.

This chapter analyzes a series of attitudes about women in political life, examining voter baseline gender preferences, desire for more women in office, and thoughts about gender parity. It also explores the policy and trait stereotypes that voters hold about women and men. Finally, the chapter analyzes the link between attitudes and support for women candidates. The findings suggest that Americans generally hold positive attitudes toward women in political life. However, these supportive attitudes have little influence on the decision to vote for women candidates.

This chapter introduces the reader to several questions surrounding the study of the impact of candidate sex on the success of women candidates. In thinking about women’s underrepresentation in elected office, scholars have examined different gendered aspects of our political system. Chief among these is the public’s reliance on gender stereotypes in evaluating women candidates. A significant body of research presents findings that suggest that stereotypes can be harmful to women’s chances at the ballot box. This chapter reviews these findings and argues for the need to examine the impact of candidate sex in a different light.

Chapter 5 investigates the impact of gender stereotypes on vote choice decisions in congressional and governor elections. The analysis compares the impact of stereotypes and candidate evaluations alongside political influences such as party, incumbency, and campaign spending. Voting for Democratic and Republican women candidates is considered separately and is compared with races with only male candidates. Voters do not rely on gender stereotypes when deciding for whom they will vote. Vote choice decisions in single-sex and mixed-sex races are similar.

This concluding chapter summarizes the findings on the impact of candidate sex and gender stereotypes on candidate evaluations, vote choice, and campaign decisions. The public holds mostly positive attitudes toward women candidates. Gender stereotypes are not a central influence on support for women. Instead, traditional influences like political party are most important, regardless of the sex of the candidates. This chapter also suggests areas for future research, such as examinations of woman-only races, partisan stereotypes, and the impact of women officeholders.

Public opinion about the appropriate place for women in the political world has evolved dramatically over time. This chapter employs data from an original survey of voters in 2010 to examine voter attitudes toward women in American politics, their gender stereotypes, and whether they are willing to vote for women candidates.

The Introduction reviews the research on women candidates and office holders in the United States and explores their historical and current presence as well as their contributions and future challenges. On one hand, women’s presence in the U.S. Congress is higher than it has ever been in our history. On the other, the same is not true for state legislatures, gubernatorial positions, statewide elected executives, judges, and mayors. Hence, men are still more than three-quarters of the office holders of our nation. And enduring evidence suggests that women pay a higher cost for their success. Yet, even with only partial permeability of political institutions and disproportionate obstacles, many women have found ways to succeed around them to both participate and make distinctive and meaningful contributions to the work of representation. A key question for the immediate and longer term is whether women of the twenty-first century can make more rapid and uniform progress than has been true in the past.

This chapter explores the ways elections are gendered by summarizing the differences and similarities between men and women candidates. Women and men are similar in their electability, fundraising, and use of many campaign techniques, but they differ in their ambition and backgrounds, where they run, campaign issues, voter stereotypes, and media coverage. Additionally, the chapter reports on original research that examines the electability of Republican women congressional candidates running against Democratic men or Democratic women. Republican women are found to be advantaged when they challenge a Democratic women incumbent.

The epilogue discusses the volume’s central themes in light of events around the 2016 presidential election. This chapter considers growth in gender equality over the last one hundred years as well as continuing aspects of gender inequality. It examines the degree to which women’s influence has changed over time, particularly their increased presence in politics as well as ongoing efforts to marginalize their roles. The final chapter examines this influence in electoral politics as well as social movement activism, also exploring the ways in which politics continues to be a deeply gendered sphere of action. This epilogue returns to the rich diversity of women’s engagement in political action, reminding readers of the significant insights that can emerge from an intersectional approach to understanding women’s political action. The book concludes with thoughts, which must be speculative at best, of what may lie ahead for the next hundred years of women’s enfranchisement.