Female Front Runner Entry and the Gender Gap in Voter Turnout. Findings from a Differences-In-Differences Design

Does the gap between women's and men's turnout decrease when female front runners enter the electoral arena? In past decades the gender gap in voter turnout has decreased in many national elections, but persists in most sub-national elections. I argue that gender differences in turnout reduce once major parties select female politicians to lead their election campaigns, because female voters are more likely to turn out when a highly visible candidate from their respective group leads the election campaign. This paper estimates the effect of female front runner entry on the gender gap in voter turnout with a differences-in-differences approach and administrative election statistics from German state elections between (1960-2018). The findings provide quasi-experimental evidence that the gender gap in voter turnout decreases after the entry of female front runners, but only provide weak evidence against a true effect of very minor magnitude.