{"title":"Glass Half Full or Half Empty: Does Optimism about Women’s Representation in Elected Office Matter?","authors":"Patrick W. Kraft, Kathleen Dolan","doi":"10.1080/1554477X.2022.2081444","DOIUrl":null,"url":null,"abstract":"ABSTRACT Recent years have seen an unprecedented number of women candidates running for public office. Does the resulting potential for greater gender equality in political representation have downstream effects on individual-level political attitudes, particularly among women voters? Given the partisan imbalance in women’s candidacies, do Republican and Democratic voters experience the growing gender parity in political representation differently? We explore these questions by employing a survey experiment in the 2018 Cooperative Election Study (CES) that manipulates the perceived trajectory of women’s representation in politics. Our results suggest that priming future optimism as compared to pessimism in women’s representation has little overall effect on the gender gap in political efficacy and interest, but that party affiliation can be a moderator in this context. We discuss the broader implications of our findings for women’s engagement in politics.","PeriodicalId":46116,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Women Politics & Policy","volume":"44 1","pages":"139 - 151"},"PeriodicalIF":1.6000,"publicationDate":"2022-05-30","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":"1","resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":null,"PeriodicalName":"Journal of Women Politics & Policy","FirstCategoryId":"90","ListUrlMain":"https://doi.org/10.1080/1554477X.2022.2081444","RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":null,"EPubDate":"","PubModel":"","JCR":"Q2","JCRName":"POLITICAL SCIENCE","Score":null,"Total":0}
引用次数: 1
Abstract
ABSTRACT Recent years have seen an unprecedented number of women candidates running for public office. Does the resulting potential for greater gender equality in political representation have downstream effects on individual-level political attitudes, particularly among women voters? Given the partisan imbalance in women’s candidacies, do Republican and Democratic voters experience the growing gender parity in political representation differently? We explore these questions by employing a survey experiment in the 2018 Cooperative Election Study (CES) that manipulates the perceived trajectory of women’s representation in politics. Our results suggest that priming future optimism as compared to pessimism in women’s representation has little overall effect on the gender gap in political efficacy and interest, but that party affiliation can be a moderator in this context. We discuss the broader implications of our findings for women’s engagement in politics.
期刊介绍:
The Journal of Women, Politics & Policy explores women and their roles in the political process as well as key policy issues that impact women''s lives. Articles cover a range of tops about political processes from voters to leaders in interest groups and political parties, and office holders in the legislative, executive, and judicial branches of government (including the increasingly relevant international bodies such as the European Union and World Trade Organization). They also examine the impact of public policies on women''s lives in areas such as tax and budget issues, poverty reduction and income security, education and employment, care giving, and health and human rights — including violence, safety, and reproductive rights — among many others. This multidisciplinary, international journal presents the work of social scientists — including political scientists, sociologists, economists, and public policy specialists — who study the world through a gendered lens and uncover how gender functions in the political and policy arenas. Throughout, the journal places a special emphasis on the intersection of gender, race/ethnicity, class, and other dimensions of women''s experiences.