Sexism beyond Gender: The Electoral Role of Candidate Feminism and Voter Sexism

• In Event: Gender as a Politicized Identity

Abstract

Are voters’ sexist attitudes directed at all women candidates or do they primarily penalize certain types of candidates? This paper examines whether and to what extent candidate association with feminism activates modern sexist attitudes and translates into an electoral cost. We rely on two survey-based experiments on samples of U.S. registered voters. The results demonstrate that candidate association with feminism – whether explicit by self-labeling or being labeled a feminist by opponents or implicit by touting gender-egalitarian policy priorities – can activate sexist reactions and lead to significantly lower support for female and male candidates in both the Democratic and the Republican parties. In contrast, across genders and parties, candidates who distance themselves from feminism tend to receive a support boost as sexism intensifies. However, sexist attitudes are not similarly distributed by party. Thus, while Democratic candidates’ safest electoral strategy is merely eschewing the feminist label, Republican candidates have an incentive to avoid both the label and gender-egalitarian policies. These findings have important implications for our understanding of the electoral obstacles and opportunities ensuing from the dynamic interaction of gender identity, modern sexism, and feminism.

Author

• Marzia Oceno, Florida International University