Kathleen Dolan

Do Gender Stereotypes Transcend Party

Voters hold stereotypes about candidate gender and candidate party. Yet little is known about the intersection of gender and party stereotypes. In this article, we investigate whether gender stereotypes transcend party. We consider whether gender stereotypes affect woman politicians differently by party and examine the effect of partisan identification on gender stereotypes. We find that the public perceives gender differences within both political parties. Thus the presence of the party cue does not preclude a role for candidate gender. However, we also find that the implications of gender stereotypes are somewhat different for Democratic and Republican women.

Do Women Candidates Play to Gender Stereotypes? Do Men Candidates Play to Women? Candidate Sex and Issues Priorities on Campaign Websites:

While previous research indicates that voters hold gender-based stereotypes of women and men candidates for elected office, the degree to which candidate actions contribute to these views is less well known. The research reported here attempts to determine whether candidates appeal to gender-based stereotypes by choosing to campaign on issues that are in line with voter expectations. Specifically, it examines whether women candidates for Congress in 2000 and 2002 presented campaign issues that were different from those presented by their male opponents and whether these issues conform to expected gender stereotypes, and then compares these findings to that of a men-only race comparison group. Content analysis of campaign web sites is employed to examine the campaign images presented by these candidates. Contrary to assumptions, women in 2000 and 2002 did not focus their issue priorities on a set of gender-stereotyped issues, but instead campaigned on a set of topics that were similar to those of their male opponents.

Gender Stereotypes, Candidate Evaluations, and Voting for Women Candidates: What Really Matters?

Elections involving women candidates in the United States can offer unsettling examples of voter gender stereotypes, but research on women candidates provides little in the way of available data that allow us to link stereotypes to voter decision-making. This project reports results from a 2010 survey designed to examine gender stereotypes, candidate evaluations, and voting behavior in U.S. House elections with women candidates running against men. In general, stereotypes are not a central part of candidate evaluations or voting decisions, but the political party of the woman candidate can shape their role in candidate evaluations and vote choice.

Do Women and Men Know Different Things? Measuring Gender Differences in Political Knowledge

That women exhibit lower levels of political knowledge than men is a common and consistent finding in political science research. Recently, scholars have begun examining whether the content and structure of political knowledge measures contribute to women’s perceived knowledge deficit. In an attempt to enter the debate on the explanations for gender differences in knowledge, I create and test a number of measures of gender-relevant political knowledge to determine whether broadening our definitions of what constitutes “knowledge” may help us more clearly understand the apparent gender gap in political knowledge in the United States. The results indicate that expected gender differences disappear when respondents are asked about the levels of women’s representation in the national government.

Is There a “Gender Affinity Effect” in American Politics? Information, Affect, and Candidate Sex in U.S. House Elections

A common assumption people make about American elections is that women voters will be the most likely source of support for female candidates, a phenomenon referred to as the “gender affinity effect.” Using National Election Study (NES) data from 1990 to 2000, this project expands our understanding of forms that this affinity effect can take by examining two underutilized measures of reactions to candidates: information and candidate affect scores. The author also considers the impact of political party on womens and mens attitudes toward female candidates and examines whether any gender affinity effect in reactions to female candidates is related to peoples voting decisions.

Symbolic Mobilization? The Impact of Candidate Sex in American Elections

The increase in the number of women candidates in American politics has raised questions about whether the presence of these women has an impact on the public by mobilizing attitudes and behaviors. Employing National Election Study data from 1990 to 2004, this work examines whether women candidates influence levels of voter attitudes and behaviors and considers the role of political party and electoral competitiveness in this symbolic mobilization. The results indicate that there is little empirical analysis to support the assumption that the presence of women candidates translates into any widespread increase in political attitudes and behaviors.

When does gender matter? : women candidates and gender stereotypes in American elections

Acknowledgements List of Figures and Tables Chapter 1 - Candidate Sex and Gender Stereotypes in American Elections Chapter 2 - Studying Gender Stereotypes and Women Candidates Chapter 3 - Attitudes, Stereotypes, and Support for Women Candidates Chapter 4 - Do Stereotypes Shape Evaluations of Candidates? Chapter 5 - The Role of Stereotypes in Vote Choice Decisions Chapter 6 - Stereotypes in Other Places? Candidate Quality and Issue Campaigns Chapter 7 - The Landscape for Women Candidates Appendix A - Candidate Lists Appendix B - Variable Construction Appendix C - Campaign Ads and Websites Appendix D - Survey Instrument Appendix E - Additional Vote Choice Analysis Notes Bibliography Index

Knowing Versus Caring: The Role of Affect and Cognition in Political Perceptions

This paper examines the importance of political knowledge in shaping accurate perceptions of the political world—specifically, how levels of general political knowledge influence the accuracy of specific political judgments, how those judgments might also be shaped by “wishful thinking,” and how political knowledge attenuates the impact of wishful thinking on political judgments. Predictions of who would win the U.S. presidential election in 1984, 1988, 1992, and 1996, as surveyed in the National Election Studies conducted in those years, were used as a measure of the accuracy of political perceptions. Analysis of these data reveals that both political knowledge and wishful thinking are important determinants of the accuracy of peoples perceptions; in addition, the impact of wishful thinking on perceptions is attenuated by political knowledge.

It Takes a Survey: Understanding Gender Stereotypes, Abstract Attitudes, and Voting for Women Candidates

A significant body of previous research demonstrates that the public holds stereotyped views about the abilities and personal traits of women and men who run for office. However, because much of this work is based on experimental designs or hypothetical candidates, we have relatively little information about whether and how gender stereotypes matter in real election situations. In an effort to determine whether people draw on stereotypes in evaluating women in political life, we use data from a survey of people who experienced races for the U.S. House in 2010 in which women candidates ran against men. We analyze two sets of dependent variables—(a) abstract attitudes about women and men as candidates and officeholders and (b) vote choice in the actual House elections. In line with previous experimental work, we find that gender stereotypes are important to people’s abstract evaluations of candidates and election situations. However, we find little evidence that gender stereotypes matter to the same degree in shaping vote choice decisions involving actual candidates.

Electoral Context, Issues, and Voting for Women in the 1990s

Abstract This research hypothesizes that, because of the particular stimulation provided by the focus on candidate sex and gender-related issues in the electoral environment, there was a unique set of demographic and attitudinal variables related to voting for a woman candidate for the House of Representatives in 1992. Because the environments of the elections of 1994 and 1996 were relatively “gender-free,” these variables were not related to voting behavior in these years. The analysis supports the hypothesis that the determinants of support for women congressional candidates are different in 1992 than in subsequent elections. It also suggests that the differing environments of the three elections may be a contributing factor to these differences.