Do Voters Judge the Performance of Female and Male Politicians Differently? Experimental Evidence from the United States and Australia

• Date: 01 June 2021
• Published date: 01 June 2021
• DOI: 10.1177/1065912920906193
• Subject Matter: Articles

https://doi.org/10.1177/1065912920906193

Political Research Quarterly

2021, Vol. 74(2) 302 –316

© 2020 University of Utah

Article reuse guidelines:

sagepub.com/journals-permissions

DOI: 10.1177/1065912920906193

journals.sagepub.com/home/prq

Article

Introduction

What if men are by physiology or temperament more

adapted to exercise authority or to issue command?

—Tony Abbott, former prime minister of Australia1

I just don’t think she has a presidential look, and you need a

presidential look.

—Donald Trump on Hillary Clinton2

The idea that women have to fit certain stereotypes; that’s a

weight around the ankle of every ambitious woman I’ve ever

met. [. . .] This should be called out for what it is: a cultural,

political, economic game that is being played to keep women

in their place.

—Hillary Clinton3

Women who run for political office face a different envi-

ronment than their male counterparts (Dittmar 2014;

Lawless 2015). Female candidates must overcome preex-

isting conceptions about their suitability for office based

on stereotypes related to their gender (Bauer 2019;

Fridkin, Kenney, and Woodall 2009; Koch 2000; Mo

2015; Paul and Smith 2008; Sanbonmatsu 2002;

Sanbonmatsu and Dolan 2009; Sawer 2002). While men

are thought to be assertive, confident, and independent—

the traditional traits of leadership—women as a social

group are thought to be kind, other-serving, and compas-

sionate (Eagly and Karau 2002; Huddy and Capelos

2002; Huddy and Terkildsen 1993b; Koenig et al. 2011).

These gender stereotypes not only affect public percep-

tions of women’s suitability for office and leadership, but

also affect perceptions of their political views (Devroe

and Wauters 2018; Kelley and McAllister 1983; Koch

2000), their electability (Funk, Hinojosa, and Piscopo

2017; O’Brien 2015; Thomas 2018; Thomas and Bodet

906193PRQXXX10.1177/1065912920906193Political Research QuarterlyDe Geus et al.

research-article2020

1Oxford University, UK

2University of Toronto, ON, Canada

3The University of Melbourne, VIC, Australia

Corresponding Author:

Roosmarijn A. de Geus, Nuffield College, Gwilym Gibbon Centre for

Public Policy, Oxford University, New Road, Oxford OX1 1NF, UK.

Email: Rose.degeus@nuffield.ox.ac.uk

Do Voters Judge the Performance of

Female and Male Politicians Differently?

Experimental Evidence from the United

States and Australia

Roosmarijn A. de Geus1, John R. McAndrews2, Peter John Loewen2,

and Aaron Martin3

Abstract

Do gender stereotypes about agency affect how voters judge the governing performance of political executives?

We explore this question using two conjoint experiments: one conducted in the United States and the other in

Australia. Contrary to our expectations, we find no evidence in either experiment to suggest that female political

executives (i.e., governors, premiers, and mayors) receive lower levels of credit than their male counterparts for

positive governing performance. We do find evidence that female executives receive less blame than male executives

for poor governing performance—but only in the U.S. case. Taken together, our findings suggest that the stereotype

of male agency has only a limited effect on voters’ retrospective judgments. Moreover, the results indicate that—when

performance information is presented in unframed, factual terms—agentic stereotyping by voters does not, in itself,

present a serious obstacle to the re-election of women in powerful executive positions.

Keywords

gender, retrospective voting, conjoint experiment, United States, Australia