Women candidates and voter bias: do women politicians need to be better?

Black, Jerome H.; Erickson, Lynda

doi:10.1016/s0261-3794(01)00028-2

Cited by 92 publications

(50 citation statements)

References 19 publications

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“…While the above works give some indication of voter biases, many other scholars have found no relationship among candidates' gender, election probability, and votes (Norris and Lovenduski 1995;Black and Erickson 2003;Kunovich 2012). Even in Ireland, where women's representation has remained at one of the lowest levels among democracies, researchers have found no evidence that women receive fewer first preference votes Marsh 2010, 2011).…”

Section: Closed Vs Open Lists and Womenmentioning

confidence: 93%

Who stands in the way of women? Open vs. closed lists and candidate gender in Estonia

Allik

2015

East European Politics

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The literature on women's descriptive representation has looked at the debate on open and closed lists as a choice between electoral systems. This article instead focuses on whether voters or the parties are biased against female candidates. Using data from six Estonian elections, the article finds that voters are not consistently biased against female candidates and open lists do not necessarily decrease women's representation. However, unknown and non-incumbent female candidates fare significantly worse than similar men. The analysis also shows that parties do not place women in electable positions on closed lists, and closed lists do not improve women's representation.Keywords: candidate gender; voter preference; political parties; candidate selection; electoral systems; Estonia IntroductionIn most countries, women are far less likely to hold elected office than men, and there has been virtually no change in the gender composition of parliaments in some countries since the 1970s. This is the case despite advances made in women's education, employment rates, and substantial changes in public attitudes about female leadership. What or who is still standing in the way of electing women to office? This article looks at the debate on the effect of closed and open lists on women's representation, an issue that ultimately comes down to the question of whether political parties or voters disadvantage female candidates. While previous research in this area has tested theories about list types at the country level, this article reassesses the accuracy of this theory at the individual level, that is, at the level of the actual causal mechanism.I use data from six parliamentary elections in Estonia between 1992 and 2011. The Estonian case is insightful for many reasons. First, during the 20-year span, the electoral system has largely remained unchanged and simultaneously combines both closed and open lists. The uniqueness of the system allows us to test the effect of list types on women's election while holding everything pertaining to each election constant. Second, the availability of detailed party and candidate data permits the testing of the theories at the level of the mechanism rather than observing a relationship at the country level. Third, previous research on individual-level data has focused on candidate-centred systems -mainly single member districts (SMD), but also single transferable vote (STV) -and analysed only a single point in time. The Estonian data provide the opportunity to test the effect of gender on votes, election chances and list position in a party-centred proportional system over a 20-year period.

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Section: Closed Vs Open Lists and Womenmentioning

confidence: 93%

Who stands in the way of women? Open vs. closed lists and candidate gender in Estonia

Allik

2015

East European Politics

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“…To explain the relative absence of women, scholars have asked whether it stems from gender differences in political ambition, biases in the recruitment practices of political elites, or prejudices on the part of voters. The third possibility has been firmly debunked: most studies find that voters vote for women at equal or greater rates than men (Black and Erickson, 2003). Most subsequent work has thus focused on the relative role of supply-and demand-side factors in explaining why women are under-represented in electoral politics and how their representation might be increased.…”

Section: Recent Trends In Women's Access To National Parliamentsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Beyond Hillary and Benazir: Women’s Political Leadership Worldwide

Jalalzai

Krook

2010

International Political Science Review

107

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Women have recently made dramatic gains in electoral politics, winning a number of high profile positions of national leadership and a record number of seats in parliaments around the world. This article surveys and analyzes these developments, seeking to understand why women's representation has increased in some countries but not in others, as well as what these patterns indicate about changes in the status of women in political life. It concludes with some reflections on the gendered nature of the public sphere and what these shifts might mean for women as a group.

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“…The few comparative findings generally fail to confirm discrimination against women parliamentary candidates by voters (Black and Erickson 2003;Hunter and Denton 1984;Rasmussen 1983;Studlar and McAllister 1991). However, these studies are conducted on only Western parliamentary systems, which still leaves unknown the dynamics of voter stereotypes in other settings where discrimination is more overt.…”

Section: Female Presidents By Decadementioning

confidence: 97%

Madam President: Gender, Power, and the Comparative Presidency

Jalalzai

2010

Journal of Women, Politics & Policy

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This article examines the paths and powers of women who have occupied presidential positions around the world from 1974 through 2008. While women have had less success in obtaining presidential posts compared to prime ministerial offices, there have been recent notable gains. Developing a typology of presidential positions, I find that presidential positions are still overwhelmingly dominated by men. Moreover, men tend to hold greater powers in their presidential posts than women. Strong women presidents are still exceedingly rare, particularly those elected by popular vote and absent familial ties to male leaders. Overall, the comparative presidency continues to be a male domain.

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Women candidates and voter bias: do women politicians need to be better?

Cited by 92 publications

References 19 publications

Who stands in the way of women? Open vs. closed lists and candidate gender in Estonia

Who stands in the way of women? Open vs. closed lists and candidate gender in Estonia

Beyond Hillary and Benazir: Women’s Political Leadership Worldwide

Madam President: Gender, Power, and the Comparative Presidency

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