Evangelical Protestantism and Bias Against Female Political Leaders*. (15th July 2016)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Setzler, Mark; Yanus, Alixandra B.
• Is Part Of: Social science quarterly. Volume 98:Number 2(2017)
• Page Start: 766
• Page End: 778
• Publication Date: 2016-07-15
• Subjects: Political science -- Periodicals; Social sciences -- Periodicals; 300
• DOI: 10.1111/ssqu.12315
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 0038-4941

Abstract

Abstract : Objective: Gender and politics scholars have paid little attention to religion as a source of individual‐level biases against female politicians. We begin to address this gap by modeling the relationship among evangelical Protestantism, partisanship, and the beliefs that males are better issue advocates and political leaders than women. Methods: We employ logistic regression models with data from a 2008 survey administered by the Pew Social and Demographic Trends Project. Results: We find that evangelical Protestantism, but not religious attendance more generally, is a strong predictor of whether Americans will hold biases against female political leaders. The effect of evangelical Protestantism is especially pronounced within the Republican Party. Conclusions: These findings suggest a potential cause of the underrepresentation of women in the political world. They further underscore the need to control for religious denomination in future studies of gender stereotyping.