Influences on the Number and Gender of Candidates in Canadian Local Elections

Breux, Sandra; Couture, Jérôme; Koop, Royce

doi:10.1017/s0008423918000483

Cited by 11 publications

(10 citation statements)

References 44 publications

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“…There is a need to consider gendered stereotypes outside of national politics not just because gender might be more salient in local politics, but also because the decision-making environments differ. Local elections are a low-information context in which there is less media coverage, fewer partisan cues, and less intensive campaigning than in national campaigns (Breux, Couture and Koop 2018;Holman and Lay 2021;McGregor et al 2017;Tolley and Paquet 2021). As a result, voters have less information about candidates, and stereotypes may exert a stronger influence on vote choice (Higgle et al 1997;McDermott 1997McDermott , 1998.…”

Section: Gendered Stereotypes As An Explanation For Women's Political...mentioning

confidence: 99%

‘Whiny, Fake, and I Don't Like Her Hair’: Gendered Assessments of Mayoral Candidates

Tolley

Lawlor

Fortier-Chouinard

2022

Urban Affairs Review

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Municipal mayoral elections present a compelling puzzle: what happens when gendered stereotypes about level of government conflict with those about type of office? Although local politics is viewed as communal and more feminine, the mayoral office is a prominent, prestigious position of political leadership that voters may perceive as more masculine. We intervene by analyzing open-ended comments about 32 mayoral candidates from a survey of 14,438 municipal electors in eight Canadian cities. We argue gendered trait and issue stereotypes are embedded in voters’ assessments of mayoral candidates. We find no evidence that female candidates benefit from their perceived competence in local policy issues, and they experience backlash when they display the traits typically associated with strong leaders. We conclude that, even at the level of government frequently thought of as more open to women, female mayoral candidates are disadvantaged by an enduring association between masculinity and political leadership.

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Section: Gendered Stereotypes As An Explanation For Women's Political...mentioning

confidence: 99%

‘Whiny, Fake, and I Don't Like Her Hair’: Gendered Assessments of Mayoral Candidates

Tolley

Lawlor

Fortier-Chouinard

2022

Urban Affairs Review

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“…This work has generally found that women are not better represented at the municipal level than in provincial or federal legislatures (Tolley, 2011; Ogilvie et al, 2020). Recent studies have deepened this work by exploring the predictors of women's municipal representation across institutions, population sizes and municipal positions (Breux et al, 2019; Gavan-Koop and Smith, 2008; Sullivan, 2019).…”

Section: Municipal Elections and Women's Electoral Performancementioning

confidence: 99%

Women's Municipal Electoral Performance: An Introduction to the Canadian Municipal Elections Database

et al. 2021

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This research note describes the Canadian Municipal Elections Database (CMED), a new publicly available and actively maintained dataset of more than 24,000 municipal elections in Canada. We describe the need for high-quality election results data for municipal politics research and describe the content, sources and construction of the CMED. To illustrate the value of the CMED, we estimate gender differences in municipal electoral performance for the first time, finding that women are, on average, more likely than men to win municipal elections in Canada.

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“…Research activity in the area of local electoral politics has increased significantly in recent years (Breux et al, 2017;Lucas, 2015;McGregor et al, 2016;Siemiatycki, 2011), with much academic effort focused on the representation of women or racial minorities. This work has broadly concluded that women and/or racial minorities are underrepresented in local government, as they are at other orders of government (Bird, 2015;Bird et al, 2016;Breux et al, 2018;McGregor et al, 2016;Spicer et al, 2017;Tolley, 2011). However, despite the growing scholarly interest in Canadian local elections, there has been little attention paid to school boards and their elections (which are held concurrently with municipal elections).…”

Section: Résumémentioning

confidence: 99%

Gender, Race and Political Ambition: The Case of Ontario School Board Elections

2020

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The political underrepresentation of women and racial minorities in Canadian politics is well documented. One political arena that has yet to be examined in this respect, however, is school boards. Using data from a candidate survey conducted during the course of the 2018 Ontario school board elections, as well as demographic data collected on the entire population of school board candidates, we explore the unique characteristics of school board elections. The research note begins by describing the gender and racial composition of candidates and trustees in Canada's most populous province. It then considers the ways in which school board elections may serve as a launchpad to higher office for either of these two traditionally underrepresented groups, as we explore the features of progressive political ambition, recruitment into school board campaigns and the relative electoral success of racialized candidates and women in this local office. While women do very well in school board elections, they are significantly less likely than their male counterparts to have the desire to move up to provincial or federal politics. Meanwhile, racialized candidates contest school board election in significant numbers and report similar levels of progressive ambition relative to their white counterparts, but they fare exceptionally poorly in school board elections.

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Influences on the Number and Gender of Candidates in Canadian Local Elections

Cited by 11 publications

References 44 publications

‘Whiny, Fake, and I Don't Like Her Hair’: Gendered Assessments of Mayoral Candidates

‘Whiny, Fake, and I Don't Like Her Hair’: Gendered Assessments of Mayoral Candidates

Women's Municipal Electoral Performance: An Introduction to the Canadian Municipal Elections Database

Gender, Race and Political Ambition: The Case of Ontario School Board Elections

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