Gender and Justification in Political Scandal

• Author: Stephen Utych,Ashley Stilwell
• Published date: 01 January 2022
• Date: 01 January 2022
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1177/1532673X211041145
• Subject Matter: Articles

2022, Vol. 50(1) 131 –143

https://doi.org/10.1177/1532673X211041145

American Politics Research

© The Author(s) 2021

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DOI: 10.1177/1532673X211041145

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Article

Scandal and corruption, it seems, often go hand in hand

with politics, and have for decades (see Peters & Welch,

1978). Politicians, especially nationally visible politicians,

are often embroiled in scandals, whether small or large,

real or manufactured.1 This was seen prominently in the

2016 presidential election, where Donald Trump and his

supporters chanted “Lock her up!” at Hillary Clinton over

allegations of misuse of her private email server during her

time as secretary of state. Similarly, during Trump’s cam-

paign, serious allegations of sexual harassment and assault

were levied against him, and as president, his use of Trump

properties for official government business and refusal to

release his tax returns have come under significant public

scrutiny.

As Trump has shown, there are different avenues politi-

cians can take to deal with a scandal, as well. In the case of

his tax returns, Trump has offered a justification of a long-

pending IRS audit as a reason for not releasing them. In the

case of the use of Trump properties, however, Trump has

remained largely silent. We examine how justifications can

operate to mute political scandal, and how this differs by

gender.

Considering the cultural implications of gender stereo-

types as well as the techniques used in blame-avoidance

strategies and public perception management, we will exam-

ine how public attitudes toward politicians are impacted by

both gender and corruption accusations. The current study

considers corruption, transgression, and scandal as one of the

same concepts, defined as “illegal, or unauthorized, profi-

teering by officials who exploit their position for personal

gain” (Blackburn et al., 2004, p. 5).

The importance of this topic is exemplified by the emerg-

ing trend to increase women’s representation in liberal

democracies. Early academics assumed that the low levels of

women in political office were a consequence of voter bias,

but modern findings show that when women run for political

positions they have the same likelihood of winning as their

male counterparts (Ford, 2002). However, in contrast to men,

women are less likely to contemplate running for office due

to misunderstanding voters’ attitudes and their own abilities

(Fox & Lawless, 2002). Women often have to display stron-

ger qualifications than men to be elected to office (Bauer,

2020). Essentially, women running for office win at the same

rate as men because they are better candidates (Fulton, 2012).

Because of this, the effects of scandal may be especially

important—if women face different penalties for being

accused of political scandals, whether or not these accusa-

tions are accurate, it could be damaging for their electoral

prospects.

Scandal, Stereotypes and Gender

Political scandals can have important impacts on electoral

outcomes, influencing both the likelihood that a politician

chooses to not seek re-election, and their vote share in the

1041145APRXXX10.1177/1532673X211041145American Politics ResearchStilwell and Utych

research-article2021

1University of Idaho, ID, USA

2Boise State University, ID, USA

Corresponding Author:

Stephen Utych, Boise State University, 1910 University Drive – MS 1935,

Boise, ID 83725, USA.

Email: stephenutych@boisestate.edu

Gender and Justification in

Political Scandal

Ashley Stilwell1 and Stephen Utych2

Abstract

Scandals are an unfortunate, but important, part of the political world. We examine how citizen perceptions of politicians

involved in scandals are conditional upon two important factors: the politician’s gender and their decision to provide a

justification for the scandal. Using experimental evidence, we find that justification of a scandal increases perceptions of

competence for politicians, regardless of gender, but only increases perceptions of likability for women. We find, additionally,

that the effect of gender is conditional on political ideology: liberals generally feel more positive toward a woman involved in

a scandal, while no difference emerges for conservatives.

Keywords

gender, scandal, ideology