Aaldering: 'Kamala Harris, like all other influential women in politics, faces a lot of sexism during the campaign. Not only by trolls on the internet, but also directly by political opponents.' For example, Donald Trump, claims that she owes her career to sexual favors , claims that foreign leaders will see her as a "play toy", and regularly comments on her appearance. James Vance, Trump's running mate, also contributed by calling Harris a "childless cat lady" who he says has no direct stake in the future of the US. How do voters actually feel about these kinds of sexist attacks on women politicians? And how can women politicians respond?
Sexist campaign attacks
In a series of experiments among more than 7,000 American voters, political scientists Loes Aaldering and Alessandro Nai studied how voters respond to sexist campaign attacks. The goal of such an attack is to diminish the popularity of the women opponent, but for almost all voter groups there is a boomerang effect: it actually harms the popularity of the men attacker and in some cases even increases the popularity of the women politician. Aaldering: 'There are differences in how strongly voters punish sexism, which is most pronounced among Democratic and women voters,' Aaldering said. ' But also among men and Republican voters and, surprisingly, even among voters who identify themselves with the radical-right Make America Great Again movement, we see an electoral loss.'
Reactions to sexism in the campaign
Aaldering and Nai also studied how women politicians could respond to such an attack and what voters think of these various options. The findings shows that there are two types of reactions that voters strongly dislike. First, reacting argumentatively and in an uncivil manner - for example, scolding the opponent. Secondly, voters also do not like responses with aggressive sarcasm - for example, retaliating against the attacker by joking about his masculinity. Voters seem to have a slight preference for responses that are educational or ironic. An educational response might be, for example, an explanation of why this form of discrimination is harmful. An ironic response, for example, is when the female candidate makes a joke like 'Oh, so I belong in the kitchen?' 'Again, approval and disapproval of responses to sexism are fairly universal among voters and we see few differences between Democratic and Republican voters or between male and female voters in preferences for types of responses,' Aaldering said.
Voters view women more positively
These sexist campaign attacks are all based on gender stereotypes, the VU political scientist said. What gender stereotypes actually exist among voters? In other research by Aaldering and colleagues among 1,200 American voters, they measured what characteristics voters associate with different groups of politicians: politicians in general, male politicians and female politicians. This research shows that voters have a rather negative image of male politicians and politicians in general. They mainly associate them with negative traits such as unreliable, manipulative, selfish and power-hungry. Surprisingly, voters have a much more positive attitude toward female politicians and link them to positive traits such as intelligent, ambitious, ethical and analytical.
More female role models in politics
Aaldering's experiment among American voters shows that, in general, the stereotype of female politicians differs greatly from that of male politicians and politicians in general, in favor of women. Thus, there now seems to be less of a mismatch between the stereotype of a female politician and the leadership stereotype than before. In current day politics, this disadvantage has been significantly reduced by the increase in the number of prominent women in politics: on the important leadership traits of competence, strong leadership, empathy and integrity, women politicians currently score as well or even better than men politicians. 'Good news,' Aaldering argues. 'This can help enormously to further increase the representation of women in politics.'
Worrying are the negative associations voters have with (male) politicians, Aaldering said. 'The negative image of male politicians fits into a broader trend of political cynicism, distrust and polarization.' Remarkably, Aaldering continues, this sentiment has not spilled over to female politicians. 'So women are still seen as a separate category. This also presents opportunities: perhaps women can play an important role in restoring trust in politics.'
Voting for a woman
Also, voters in general seem less reluctant to vote for women politicians than before: only radical right voters (similar to MAGA voters in the US) seem less inclined to vote for a female over a male candidate. Among center and moderate right voters (e.g., moderate Republicans in the US), the gender of the candidate seems to have little direct effect on voters' electoral behavior. Among (strongly) left-wing voters, on the contrary, a female candidate has a slight advantage.
Do women politicians then no longer suffer any disadvantage because of their gender? 'That is not entirely a correct interpretation,' says Aaldering. In general, voters do not seem to change their preference and switch between parties because a party has a male or female candidate, but in other areas - for example the media - women politicians are still disadvantaged'.
Media coverage of male and female politicians to the detriment of women
Aaldering: 'We see clear systematic differences in media coverage of men and women politicians that is to the detriment of women.' This conclusion is based on a large-scale meta-analysis in which the political scientist collected all studies comparing media coverage of men and women politicians, a total of 90 studies of more than 750,000 media reports on more than 25,000 politicians in 32 countries. This shows that in two-party systems such as in the US, men politicians do not receive more media attention than their women opponents (unlike in the Netherlands, where this is the case), but men politicians are systematically covered differently than their women colleagues. Men politicians receive more coverage related to their leadership qualities, substantive policy issues and they are more often quoted directly, while women politicians are more often discussed in relation to their appearance and family situation. Also, women politicians are more often covered based on characteristics associated with the feminine stereotype (e.g., friendliness and emotionality), while their men counterparts receive more media attention based on masculine characteristics (e.g., independence and dominance). This type of media coverage has substantial impact on voters and clearly works in favor of men politicians.
Conclusion
Voters in the U.S. view female politicians more positively, while they attribute more negative characteristics to male politicians. This contrasts with media coverage, while generally is in favor of men politicians. The positive associations voters have with women politicians break traditional gender stereotypes and show that perceptions of political leadership are changing.