How Gender Conditions the Way Citizens Evaluate and Engage with Their Representatives

Date01 March 2018
AuthorMia Costa,Brian F. Schaffner
DOI10.1177/1065912917722235
Published date01 March 2018
Subject MatterArticles
https://doi.org/10.1177/1065912917722235
Political Research Quarterly
2018, Vol. 71(1) 46 –58
© 2017 University of Utah
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DOI: 10.1177/1065912917722235
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Article
Introduction
A considerable body of research has documented the
ways in which women have distinct representational roles
in Congress, as well as distinct roles as constituents.
Many scholars have claimed that descriptive representa-
tion is especially important for women because they his-
torically occupy a marginalized place within politics and
society (Hansen 1997; Mansbridge 1999; Phillips 1995;
Rosenthal 1995). Women, thus, have distinct policy pref-
erences and interests in relation to men, which draws
them together as a group (Carroll 2002; MacDonald and
O’Brien 2011; Mendelberg, Karpowitz, and Goedert
2014; Osborn and Mendez 2010). In addition, women are
purported to have a distinct style of governing that affects
their behavior in office, including engaging with the pub-
lic (Carroll 2002; Mendelberg, Karpowitz, and Goedert
2014; Reingold 2008; Swers 2002). Women’s presence in
political office, therefore, can increase substantive repre-
sentation of women—the responsiveness and attention to
women’s policy interests. Of course, women vary in their
interests, preferences, and needs, so the mere presence of
women legislators is not necessarily sufficient for sub-
stantive representation. But descriptive representation
may, nevertheless, influence women’s political behavior
in the mass public.
If female elected officials do provide a unique type of
representation for women, as the research suggests, then
how does this affect the way in which women evaluate
and engage with female elected officials? If at least some
women are aware that they receive better representation
from female elected officials, then they might be prone to
evaluate such legislators more favorably. These patterns
may also influence the way in which they engage with
their representatives. On one hand, women might contact
female elected officials more often, owing to the fact that
they might feel more efficacious about the prospects of
such contact. On the other hand, women may trust female
722235PRQXXX10.1177/1065912917722235Political Research QuarterlyCosta and Schaffner
research-article2017
1University of Massachusetts Amherst, USA
Corresponding Author:
Mia Costa, University of Massachusetts Amherst, Thompson Hall, 200
Hicks Way, Amherst, MA 01003, USA.
Email: micosta@polsci.umass.edu
How Gender Conditions the Way
Citizens Evaluate and Engage with
Their Representatives
Mia Costa1 and Brian F. Schaffner1
Abstract
Scholars argue that women’s presence in politics enhances symbolic representation, such as positive evaluations of
one’s representative and increased political engagement. However, there is little empirical evidence of these symbolic
benefits from descriptive representation. With data from the Cooperative Congressional Election Study panel survey,
we examine how a change in the gender of a representative affects individuals’ perceptions of that representative and
likelihood to contact them. In general, we find that women express more positive evaluations of female representatives
than male representatives, yet they are also less likely to contact female representatives. By contrast, the effect of an
elected official’s gender does not significantly affect how men evaluate or engage with that official. However, we also
show that partisanship conditions these effects, perhaps due to the fact that gender stereotypes operate differently
for Democrats than Republicans. For example, women rate female Republican legislators more positively than they do
male Republican legislators, but neither women nor men rate Democratic legislators differently based on their gender.
The findings provide strong evidence that gender matters when it comes to representation, but contrary to some
conventional wisdom, female elected officials may actually enjoy some advantages in terms of their standing among
constituents.
Keywords
representation, gender, Congress, political engagement

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