The Effects of Gender-Based Discrimination on Women’s Political Engagement

• In Event: Experimental Methods and Gender Research

Abstract

As the past election season has shown, sexism is a pervasive issue in the American political domain and beyond. While political scientists have focused on the impact of sexism on female candidates’ evaluations and electoral chances, we have largely overlooked the most common way that women learn about and are affected by sexism, namely through personal experiences both in- and outside of the political arena. Yet, we know little about the effect of personally experienced sexism on American women’s political engagement. This paper tries to address this gap. Using data from the 2016 ANES Pilot Study as well as a survey experiment, I demonstrate that women who have been discriminated against due to their sex or gender report higher levels of political interest and political participation. Interestingly, however, ideology moderates this relationship: As women become more conservative in their political leanings, personal experience with sexism depresses their interest in politics and their level of political engagement while we observe the opposite pattern among liberal women. These findings have implications for the equal representation of women from both ends of the ideological spectrum and pose questions about the way ideology enables or hinders women in their struggle for equal access to political power.

Authors

• Alexa Bankert, University of Georgia

• Simon Williamson, University of Georgia