Gendered Nationalism and the 2016 US Presidential Election: How Party, Class, and Beliefs about Masculinity Shaped Voting Behavior

Abstract

We examine which Americans were likely to believe that American society has grown “too soft and feminine,” a concept we have characterized as gendered nationalism, and how such gendered nationalist attitudes influenced voting behavior in the 2016 presidential race. Our analysis shows that party, gender, education, and class shaped attitudes about gendered nationalism: Republicans, men, and members of the working class were more likely to support gendered nationalist views. We identify a strong, significant relationship between gendered nationalist attitudes and the probability of voting for Donald Trump, even after controlling for partisanship, ideology, race, religion, and other factors. Moreover, gender differences in candidate support were largely driven by gender differences in beliefs that the United States has grown too soft and feminine. Our research adds to the growing scholarly evidence indicating that gendered beliefs are likely to have a bigger impact on American political behavior than a voter's gender alone.

Populism, Ontological Insecurity and Gendered Nationalism: Masculinity, Climate Denial and Covid-19

“…A recent study shows how the vote for Trump among (mostly Republican) men and the working class was affected by the view that American society had 'grown too soft and feminine'. 55 Such views fit into a broader pattern of gendered nationalism manifest in the president's attacks on women, especially women of colour in Congress, 56 with the president regularly questioning these individuals' patriotism in an effort to undercut their arguments.…”

Civility, gender, and gendered nationalism in the age of Trump

“…More recent work has conceptualized gendered nationalism in the American context by asking citizens the extent to which they think America has become "too soft and feminine," as I do in this study. These studies show endorsing gendered nationalist views are independently linked to voting for Donald Trump (Deckman and Cassese 2019) and to opposing efforts to keep churches closed during the Coronavirus pandemic (Smothers, Burge, and Djupe 2020). Conflating the state with gendered qualities may also have implications for attitudes about civility in the public sphere.…”

The Gendered Religious Response to State Action on the Coronavirus Pandemic

“…For instance, while higher social dominance orientation (SDO) tends to be linked to more political activity, it actually opens up a gender gap in which high-SDO women participate less than men, a pattern linked to the patriarchal institutions in which SDO is fostered (Djupe, Friesen, and Sokhey 2017). A consistent gendered political worldview played out visibly in the 2016 election, when people, especially men, who feel that "America has grown too soft and feminine" were much more likely to vote for Donald Trump (Deckman and Cassese 2019). Overall, the differences in what Deckman and Cassese call "gendered nationalism" are essential to capture in order to understand current American politics.…”