Built on Uneven Ground: How Masculine Defaults Disadvantage Women in Political Leadership

Abstract

How can we understand and rectify gender disparities in United States political leadership? We argue that the culture of U.S. political leadership is rooted in biases that prioritize and center stereotypical notions of masculinity and Whiteness, fostering an environment that disadvantages women and especially women of color above and beyond traditional gender discrimination. Heck, Santhanagopalan, Cimpian, and Kinzler (this issue) advocate for developmental interventions designed to increase women’s interest in future political careers. We propose that increasing women’s interest must be accompanied by addressing the disadvantages posed by the environment of political leadership itself. Currently, political leadership is characterized by masculine defaults, in which traits and characteristics associated with the male gender role are valued, rewarded, or regarded as standard (Cheryan & Markus, 2020). Until we dismantle masculine defaults embedded in American political leadership, increasing young women’s interest in political careers will likely fall short of securing their long-term retention and success. We first define masculine defaults and argue that the culture of U.S. political leadership is historically and currently rooted in bias and constructed to advantage masculinity and Whiteness. We then address the ways in which masculine defaults are privileged in the current U.S. political climate and may systematically disadvantage women. We suggest that reducing masculine defaults by enacting a significant shift in the culture of political leadership is necessary to enable more gender-diverse leadership and deconstruct White supremacy culture. Finally, we examine policy implications, providing recommendations for change efforts that address the gender bias that is endemic in American political leadership.