When Does Gender Matter?: Women Candidates and Gender Stereotypes in American Elections

As the number of women candidates for office in the U.S. increases each election cycle, scholars are confronted with questions about the impact of their sex on their chances for success. Chief among these questions involves the influence of gender stereotypes on the decisions voters make in elections in which women run against men. While previous research has claimed that gender stereotypes undermine women's chances of success, Kathleen Dolan, through an original national survey of over 3000 adults, turns this conventional wisdom on its head. She demonstrates that voters do hold gendered attitudes, both positive and negative, about women candidates, but that these attitudes are not related to the political decisions they make. Instead, in deciding for whom to vote, people are influenced by traditional political forces, like political party and incumbency, regardless of the sex of the candidates. In the end, When Does Gender Matter? shows that women candidates win as often as do men and that partisan concerns trump gender every time.