Voting for a woman: ideology and gendered candidate choice in Finland

Gender and Support for Undemocratic Politicians

“…On the contrary, we found some evidence that respondents are more likely to select men's profiles that uphold democratic norms, while the men respondents were more forgiving of a woman politician's transgressions. There is therefore no evidence that a same-sex mechanism influences the evaluation of democratic transgressions in a similar manner as what has been found for electoral choices (Dolan, 1998;Holli and Wass, 2010;Giger et al, 2014;Marien et al, 2017;Helimäki et al, 2023). Both of these findings can be considered encouraging from a normative standpoint, as they suggest that women and men do not evaluate politicians breaking democratic norms differently, even if they are of the same gender.…”

“…However, given that research in Finland shows strong same gender support for candidates, we would expect a respondent with the same gender to be more forgiving when compared to the less preferred candidate gender. Thus, we base our third expectation on the literature that shows that people prefer to vote for candidates of the same gender (Dolan, 1998;Holli and Wass, 2010;Giger et al, 2014;Marien et al, 2017;Helimäki et al, 2023), and argue that this is also likely to entail that they will hold candidates to a different standard if they are of the same gender.…”

“…This finding may also indicate that men and women have different standards for what violations of democratic norms are acceptable. Finally, there is a strand of literature that suggests that voters prefer candidates of the same sex, which suggests that people may evaluate democratic transgressions differently depending on the perpetrator is of the same gender as themselves (Dolan, 1998;Holli and Wass, 2010;Giger et al, 2014;Marien et al, 2017;Helimäki et al, 2023).…”

Gender and support for undemocratic politicians

“…Some studies suggest individuals may engage in gender-based voting. In other words, these studies show that individuals may prefer candidates of the same gender (Dolan, 1998;Holli and Wass, 2010;Giger et al, 2014;Marien et al, 2017;Helimäki et al, 2023). Stauffer and Fisk (2022) even show that in same party matchups there is a trend where women voters are more likely to vote for women over men candidates.…”

“…This finding may also indicate that men and women have different standards for what violations of democratic norms are acceptable. Finally, there is a strand of literature that suggests that voters prefer candidates of the same gender, which suggests that people may evaluate democratic transgressions differently depending on the perpetrator is of the same gender as themselves (Dolan, 1998;Holli and Wass, 2010;Giger et al, 2014;Marien et al, 2017;Helimäki et al, 2023).…”