What Explains Low Female Political Representation? Evidence from Survey Experiments in Japan

Abstract

Few democratic countries have lower rates of female political representation than Japan, making it an excellent place to seek clues for female underrepresentation. We were surprised to find, based on three experimental surveys, that Japanese voters do not harbor particularly negative attitudes toward female politicians. The problem instead appears to be that women are reluctant to run for office because of socially mandated family roles. An implication of our study is that gender equality in political representation will likely founder in countries with electoral systems that require around-the-clock constituency The authors are shown in alphabetical order. We would like to thank

Explaining Public Support for Gender Quotas: Sexism, Representational Quality, and State Intervention in Japan

“…Instead, women who are equally-if not more-qualified than men counterparts are more likely to step into a political career (Allen, Cutts, and Campbell 2016;Besleyet al 2017;Childs and Webb 2012;Huang 2016;Murray 2010;Nugent and Krook 2016;O'Brien 2012). In the Japanese context, Kage, Rosenbluth, and Tanaka (2019) show that voters do not find women candidates to be less competent than their men counterparts. 7 However, some voters may fear that the introduction of gender quotas would give unfair opportunities for unqualified women to win seats, as they may be unaware of findings in political science that deny such myths.…”

Varieties of Public Attitudes toward Immigration: Evidence from Survey Experiments in Japan

“…The second wave of surveys included a conjoint experiment to examine which attributes of immigrants Japanese people prefer (Hainmueller, Hopkins, and Yamamoto 2014). Increasingly popular in the field of political science, the conjoint method is useful both for understanding multidimensional preferences and for reducing social desirability bias (Ballard-Rosa, Martin, and Scheve 2017; Hainmueller and Hopkins 2015;Horiuchi, Smith, and Yamamoto 2018;Kage, Rosenbluth, and Tanaka 2019). Conjoint experiments allow us to vary different attributes randomly, making it possible to assess the impact of each attribute on respondent choice.…”

“…Conjoint experiments allow us to vary different attributes randomly, making it possible to assess the impact of each attribute on respondent choice. Because the conjoint design neither asks respondents for their views on sensitive issues nor to provide reasons for their choice, it has been used to study potentially sensitive issues such as immigration and gender (Hainmueller and Hopkins 2015;Horiuchi, Smith, and Yamamoto 2018;Kage, Rosenbluth, and Tanaka 2019;Teele, Kalla, and Rosenbluth 2018).…”

Voter responses to female candidates' voice pitch: experimental evidence from Japan

“…At 9.7%, Japan has the lowest rate of female national legislators in the developed world (Inter-Parliamentary Union, n.d.). A recent study finds surprisingly little discrimination against female candidates among the Japanese electorate (Kage et al, 2019), but it is possible that Japan's female politicians suffer from subtler bias via other channels, including their voice pitch. Japanese women typically speak at higher pitch levels than Caucasian women (e.g., speakers of American English (Yamazawa and Hollien, 1992) or Dutch (Van Bezooijen, 1995)), and this has been attributed to the cultural norm of exhibiting powerlessness among Japanese women as well as a cultural preference for higher pitch (Van Bezooijen, 1995).…”

“…Among different physical traits, this study zeroes in on the impact of female candidates' voice pitch on voters' assessments of those candidates. Recent studies of female representation typically find limited evidence of outright discrimination against female candidates (Lawless and Pearson, 2008;Palmer and Simon, 2010;Teele et al, 2018;Kage et al, 2019;Schwarz and Coppock, 2021). Yet studies in the field of psychology show that individuals' voice pitch has a considerable impact over how speakers are perceived, including their strength (Sell et al, 2010;Puts et al, 2012;Armstrong et al, 2019), formidability (Aung et al, 2021), hierarchical rank (Ko et al, 2015), attractiveness (Pisanski et al, 2012;Tigue et al, 2012;Leongómez et al, 2014), trustworthiness (Montano et al, 2017) and even aversiveness (O'Connor and Barclay, 2018).…”