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

2020 ◽  
Vol 5 (1) ◽  
pp. 9-16
Author(s):  
Brianna Morrison

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.

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.


Commonwealth ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 21 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Dana Brown

The Commonwealth of Pennsylvania has historically fared poorly in terms of the proportion of women serving in its governing bodies. After a historic year of women in politics in 2018, Pennsylvania increased its proportion of women serving in the state legislature from 19% to 26%, which is still far from parity. Why are women so underrepresented? Political scientists have tested various variables: women’s lack of political ambition, negative gatekeeping by political parties, and gender stereotypes negatively impacting female candidates, just to name a few. This paper focuses on the role that county party chairs and vice-chairs play in recruiting female candidates to run for political office in Pennsylvania. In this article I ask: what do the recruitment efforts look like on the ground and how are the recruitment efforts gendered? In terms of recruitment efforts, I expect the stronger county party to have its leaders pull from informal networks that are extensions of the party leaders themselves. On the other hand, I expect weak county parties to cast a wide net for candidate recruitment and allow candidates to self-identify, which I call the “volunteer” model. I use interview data of county party chairs in order to understand the structure of candidate recruitment in Pennsylvania and the impact it may have on candidate selection.


Author(s):  
Marcela Jabbaz Churba

AbstractThis study aims to analyse the legal decision-making process in the Community of Valencia (Spain) regarding contentious divorces particularly with respect to parental authority (patria potestas), custody and visiting arrangements for children, and the opinions of mothers and fathers on the impact these judicial measures have had on their lives. It also considers the biases in these decisions produced by privileging the rights of the adults over those of the children. Three particular moments are studied: (1) the situation before the break-up, focusing on the invisible gender gap in care; (2) the judicial process, where we observe the impact of hidden gender-based violence and gender stereotypes; and (3) the situation post-decision, showing how any existing violence continues after divorce, by means of parental authority. The concept of ‘motherhood under threat’ is placed at the centre of these issues, where children’s voices are given the least attention.


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.


Author(s):  
Yuk Yee Karen Lee ◽  
◽  
Kin Yin Li ◽  

"Breast cancer is a major concern in women’s health in Mainland China. Literatures demonstrates that women with breast cancer (WBC) need to pay much effort into resisting stigma and the impact of treatment side-effects; they suffer from overwhelming consequences due to bodily disfigurement and all these experiences will be unbeneficial for their mental and sexual health. However, related studies in this area are rare in China. The objectives of this study are 1) To understand WBC’s treatment experiences, 2) To understand what kinds of support should be contained in a transdisciplinary intervention framework (TIP) for Chinese WBC through the lens that is sensitive to gender, societal, cultural and practical experience. In this study, the feminist participatory action research (FPAR) approach containing the four cyclical processes of action research was adopted. WBC’s stories were collected through oral history, group materials such as drawings, theme songs, poetry, handicraft, storytelling, and public speech content; research team members and peer counselors were involved in the development of the model. This study revealed that WBC faces difficulties returning to the job market and discrimination, oppression and gender stereotypes are commonly found in the whole treatment process. WBC suffered from structural stigma, public stigma, and self-stigma. The research findings revealed that forming a critical timeline for intervention is essential, including stage 1: Stage of suspected breast cancer (SS), stage 2: Stage of diagnosis (SD), stage 3: Stage of treatment and prognosis (ST), and stage 4: Stage of rehabilitation and integration (SRI). Risk factors for coping with breast cancer are treatment side effects, changes to body image, fear of being stigmatized both in social networks and the job market, and lack of personal care during hospitalization. Protective factors for coping with breast cancer are the support of health professionals, spouses, and peers with the same experience, enhancing coping strategies, and reduction of symptom distress; all these are crucial to enhance resistance when fighting breast cancer. Benefit finding is crucial for WBC to rebuild their self-respect and identity. Collaboration is essential between 1) Health and medical care, 2) Medical social work, 3) Peer counselor network, and 4) self-help organization to form the TIF for quality care. The research findings are crucial for China Health Bureau to develop medical social services through a lens that is sensitive to gender, societal, cultural, and practical experiences of breast cancer survivors and their families."


2019 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
pp. 49-59
Author(s):  
Kadek Dwita Apriani ◽  
Riaty Raffiudin

This research explains the relationships between gender stereotypes that live inside patriarchal culture among Balinese with voting behaviour of female candidates in the 2014 legislative election. Using quantitative method, the number of the samples are 800 which are proportionally spread in all Bali regencies and cities. The margin of error of this research is 3% at 95% confidence level. The sampling technique used is multi stage random sampling. The research findings suggest that in the 2014 legislative election, only 4% of the Balinese respondents voted for female candidates. This is due to the gender stereotyping factor, where there are very few issues or policies that are considered more capable of being resolved by female politicians. Almost all the issues that become problems in the daily life of the Balinese people are considered by the respondents to be better resolved by male politician


2018 ◽  
Vol 8 (3) ◽  
pp. 477-492 ◽  
Author(s):  
Yoshikuni Ono ◽  
Masahiro Yamada

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.


2020 ◽  
Vol 48 (6) ◽  
pp. 779-791
Author(s):  
Alexa Bankert

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.


2014 ◽  
Vol 1 (1) ◽  
pp. 16-23 ◽  
Author(s):  
David Stadelmann ◽  
Marco Portmann ◽  
Reiner Eichenberger

AbstractWe identify the impact of transparency in political decision-making on the quality of political representation with a difference-in-difference strategy. The quality of political representation is measured by the observed divergence of parliamentary decisions from revealed voter preferences on identical issues. We show that full transparency of votes of individual politicians does not decrease divergence from voter preferences.


Author(s):  
Sri Zul Chairiyah

Abstrak: Rendahnya angka keterpilihan perempuan di lembaga Legislatif di Indonesia masih menjadi kajian menarik oleh beberapa kelompok sampai sekarang, sebut saja diantaranya yaitu kelompok pegiat gender. Salah satu lembaga legislatif di Indonesia yang memiliki masalah dengan angka rendahnya keterpilihan perempuan adalah Dewan Perwakilan Rakyat Daerah Provinsi Sumatera Barat. Sejak hadirnya kebijakan pemerintah yang tertuang dalam pasal 65 UU nomor 12 tahun 2003 yaitu tentang penetapan kuota 30% keterwakilan politik perempuan di legislatif sebagai affirmative action dalam pemilu 2004 sampai sekarang, faktanya kebijakan tersebut masih belum mampu meningkatkan jumlah keterpilihan perempuan di lembaga legislatif. Selama 3 periode pemilu, jumlah laki-laki masih diatas jumlah perempuan. Bahkan angka kritis 30% untuk perempuan di lembaga legislatif pun tidak tercapai. Sejauh ini, angka maksimal keterpilihan perempuan yang ada di Dewan Perwakilan Rakyat Daerah Provinsi Sumatera Barat hanya berjumlah 7 orang dari total keseluruhan sebanyak 65 orang. Tentunya, affirmative action perlu mengalami perbaikan lagi, sampai akhirnya kebijakan itu dapat menjadi solusi terhadap krisis perempuan dalam politik. Dari berbagai faktor penyebab tidak tercapainya tujuan peningkatan perempuan di lembaga legislatif, sepertinya butuh pembedahan kasus yang lebih mendalam lagi. Gunanya agar kebijakan yang dihasilkan lebih tepat sasaran, efektif dan efisien. Sedangkan manfaat akhirnya adalah dapat menjadi masukan untuk pemerintah dalam proses pembuatan kebijakan affirmative action yang sukses meningkatkan angka perempuan di lembaga legislatif di Indonesia pada umumnya dan Dewan Perwakilan Rakyat Daerah Provinsi Sumatera Barat khususnya. Penelitian ini mempergunakan metode kualitatif dengan teknik komparatif. Adapun beberapa konsep dan teori yang dipergunakan yaitu konsep affirmative action, teori keterwakilan politik perempuan, dan konsep bias gender. Hasil penelitian menunjukkan bahwa kendala masih rendahnya keterwakilan politik perempuan di Dewan Perwakilan Rakyat Daerah Provinsi Sumatera Barat disebabkan oleh faktor keuangan yang dimiliki calon, stereotype, gender, budaya patriarki dan lemahnya kemampuan caleg perempuan dalam politik serta modal komunikasi yang belum baik. Ada tiga hal untuk membuat kesuksesan terhadap kebijakan affirmative action yaitu pertama perbaikan dari aspek peraturan, kedua, perbaikan dari aspek perempuan calon dan ketiga adalah perbaikan dari pola pemikiran masyarakat.Kata kunci: Perkembangan Keterwakilan Politik Perempuan, Studi Komparatif, Affirmative Action, Dewan Perwakilan Rakyat Daerah Sumatera BaratAbstract: The low number of women elected at legislative institutions in Indonesia is still an interesting study by several groups until now, including the gender activist group. One of the legislative institutions in Indonesia that has problems with the low number of women being elected is the Regional Representative Council of the Province of West Sumatra. Since the introduction of a special temporary government policy for women/affirmative action (2004 elections) until now, the fact is that the policy has not been able to increase the number of women elected in the legislature. During the 3 election periods, the number of men was still above the number of women. Even the 30% critical figure for women in the legislature was not reached. So far, the maximum number of women elected in the Regional Representative Council of West Sumatra Province is only 7 people out of a total of 65 people. Of course, affirmative action needs to be improved again, until finally the policy can be a solution to the crisis of women in politics. Of the various factors that have not achieved the goal of increasing women in the legislature, it seems that more in-depth cases are needed. The point is that the resulting policies are more targeted, effective and efficient. While the final benefit is that it can be input for the government in the process of making a successful affirmative action policy that increases the number of women in the legislative body in Indonesia in general and the Regional Representative Council of West Sumatra Province in particular. This study uses qualitative methods with comparative techniques. Some of the concepts and theories used are the concept of affirmative action, the theory of women's political representation, and the concept of gender bias. The results showed that the constraints of the low political representation of women in the Regional Representatives Council of West Sumatra Province were caused by financial factors owned by candidates, stereotypes, gender, patriarchal culture and the weak ability of female candidates in politics and lack of communication capital. There are three things to make a success of the affirmative action policy, namely the first improvement from the aspect of regulation, second, the improvement from the aspect of a prospective woman and third is the improvement of the community's mindset.Key words: Women Political Representation, Comparative Study, Affirmative Action, Regional Representative Council of the Province of West Sumatra


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