Gender, Identity, and Campaign Dynamics

Abstract

How do gender, identity, and institutional constraints shape candidates’ experiences and behaviour during election campaigns? This panel brings together four studies examining the challenges and strategic responses of women, Muslim, and LGBTQ+ candidates across diverse political contexts. The papers investigate: (1) how women candidates navigate sexist hostility during election campaigns by deploying a range of anticipatory and reactive coping strategies identified through in-depth interviews in Belgium; (2) how Muslim politicians in the UK adopt more gender-conservative positions than mainstream party candidates, and how party institutional structures later constrain and reshape these positions; (3) how campaign spending and donation patterns in the UK differ for women and men, and how financial resources shape gendered electoral success over time; and (4) when and why LGBTQ+ candidates in Brazil choose to disclose or conceal their identities during campaigns, and how individual and contextual factors condition these decisions.

Title	Details
Money, Gender, and Representation: How Campaign Spending Shapes Women and Men’s Electoral Success in UK Parliamentary Elections (2001–2024)	View Paper Details
Out and Elected: Determinants of LGBTQ+ Politicians’ Visibility	View Paper Details
Gendered Inequalities in Campaign Financing: Evidence from Germany	View Paper Details
Sexism on the campaign trail, what’s next? Women candidates’ strategies to prevent and respond to sexist attacks	View Paper Details
Conservative gender positions and Muslim politicians; the case of Your Party and pro-Palestine independents in the UK	View Paper Details