Partisanship in the #MeToo Era

Abstract

Partisanship structures mass politics by shaping the votes, policy views, and political perceptions of ordinary people. Even so, substantial shifts in partisanship can occur when elites signal clear differences on a political issue and attentive citizens update their views of party reputations. Mismatched partisans who strongly care about the issue respond by changing parties in a process of “issue evolution” when writ large. Others simply update their views to match their party in a “conflict extension” process. We build on these models by integrating the largely separate research strands of party issue ownership. Using sexual misconduct as a critical case study, we argue that partisan change can occur rapidly when party elites move strategically to take ownership of an issue, thereby clarifying differences between the parties. Using a quasi-experiment, a survey experiment, and data from dozens of national surveys, we find recent, rapid shifts in party reputations on #MeToo, views of the issue, party votes, and broader party support.

Beyond the Ballot Box: Sexual Harassment and Legislative Accountability in Canadian Politics

“…Studies point to a mix of partisanship and gender as important predictors of voter behaviour in this regard. In the United States, Holman and Kalmoe (2021) find that voters who viewed the “other party” as better at addressing this problem were more likely to abstain or defect to the other party. In another US-based study, Cossette and Craig (2020: 122) observe that harassment allegations contributed to a loss of voter support for both women and men politicians equally.…”

“…In this article, we examine public opinions on how legislatures should respond when an elected official engages in one form of sexual misconduct: sexual harassment (SH) 3 . US-based research offers important insights into the electability of candidates who commit SH, with some voters willing to punish sexual harassers at the ballot box (Stark and Collignon, 2022; Holman and Kalmoe, 2021). Less well known are the public's expectations of how SH should be addressed by legislatures after a candidate has been elected.…”

Linked Fate and Social Identity: Black and White Women’s Attitudes About Abortion and MeToo

“…Many women, even if they have not personally needed an abortion or faced sexual harassment, support expanded access to abortion and greater protections for all women against sexual misconduct. Similarly, the MeToo Movement has been championed mainly by left-leaning women (Holman and Kalmoe 2021) and a variety of feminist organizations (Xiong, Cho, and Boatwright 2019). Linked fate has also been shown as an important mediating factor in connecting the MeToo movement and increased political activity, especially for Democratic women (Jenkins et al 2023).…”

The Identity Thief: How Politics, Religion, and Values Stole Support for Sexual Assault Reporting and the #MeToo Movement

“…Support cut across class, gender, race, religious, SES, and sex differences. Less than five years on from Milano's post, emerging research suggests that identity politics (Holman & Kalmoe, 2021), religious beliefs (Cassese, 2020), and sex differences (Hansen & Dolan, 2020) influence support for #MeToo while simultaneously catalyzing support for movements informed by conservative androcentric religious contexts, such as Christian Nationalism (see Campbell et al, 2018). Given contemporary polarization and politicization, we wonder how a person's self-reported participation with a religious tradition coupled with political identification along a liberal versus conservative continuum fosters a social psychological condition where emergent valueidentities impact attitudes of support for sexual assault reporting and the distinctly politicized #MeToo movement.…”

“…Whereas previous work in this area incorporates a psychologically informed social psychology, we investigate these cleavages and linkages by adopting a sociological social psychology Criminology, Criminal Justice, Law & Society -Volume 23, Issue 2 framework (for more on the significance of this distinction, see Gecas, 2000). Too, as Klar and McCoy (2021) note, support for #MeToo began with "virtue signaling" from a broad intersection of groups but has recently aligned along politically charged identity boundaries requiring a more nuanced perspective on how these dynamics evolve (for more see Cassese, 2020;Holman & Kalmoe, 2021).…”