Citizen responses to female executives: is it sex, novelty or both?. (3rd July 2017)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Schwindt-Bayer, Leslie A.; Reyes-Housholder, Catherine
• Is Part Of: Politics, groups, and identities. Volume 5:Number 3(2017)
• Page Start: 373
• Page End: 398
• Publication Date: 2017-07-03
• Subjects: Sex -- Latin America -- executive -- Brazil -- political behavior -- attitudes; Identity (Psychology) -- Periodicals; Political psychology -- Periodicals; Sex -- Periodicals; Ethnicity -- Periodicals; Ethnicity; Identity (Psychology); Political psychology; Sex; Periodicals; 320
• DOI: 10.1080/21565503.2017.1283238
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 2156-5503

Abstract

ABSTRACT: Women increasingly have been elected to executive office – both at the national and subnational level – in countries throughout the world. Yet, we know little about the effects that the election of a woman to executive office has on citizen attitudes, political engagement, or political participation. In this paper, we argue that the election of a woman to an executive could have effects through the presence of a woman in the executive, the novelty of a woman assuming executive office, or both. We test these hypotheses with a survey experiment conducted in Brazil that focuses on the election of a hypothetical female governor. This project sheds light on how citizens respond to female executives with a causal analysis in an important region for gender and executive politics.