Gender Bias in Candidate Evaluation

Abstract

How do voters and political elites evaluate women candidates, and how do gender, race, and partisanship shape the barriers and opportunities for women’s political representation? This panel brings together four studies using comparative and single-country evidence to address these questions. The papers investigate: (1) a systematic review of more than 200 studies on gender bias in candidate evaluations, assessing whether classic expectations of voter bias against women still hold; (2) how gender, race, and partisanship shape perceptions of candidate likability in conjoint experiments, and how these dynamics differ for women of different racial backgrounds; (3) how politicians and voters in Canada evaluate potential candidates, identifying shared and divergent preferences regarding gender, family status, professional traits, and mental health; (4) how sexism, racism, and partisanship interact to influence evaluations of women and men from different racial groups, and (5) how perceptions of political ostracism and experiences of individual discrimination shape citizens’ preferences for political representation.

Title	Details
Shared Biases, Different Standards: How Politicians and Voters Evaluate Political Candidates	View Paper Details
A Turning Point for Women? A Systematic Review of Voter Bias against Women Candidates	View Paper Details
Gender, Race, Partisanship and the Dynamics of Candidate Likability	View Paper Details
Representation from the Margins: How Perceived Ostracism and Discrimination Shape Demands for Political Inclusion	View Paper Details
Gender, Race, and Candidate Emergence in Canada	View Paper Details