Do Voters Communicate Different Expectations to Female Politicians?

• In Event: Experiments on Gender and Women's Participation

Abstract

In this project we collaborate with state legislators in the United States to see if women and men hear different messages from constituents regarding approval of their party and their expectations for what the legislator should do. For the experiment, the state legislators in multimember districts randomized who sent the survey to their constituents. Some constituents were asked for input by a female state legislator and some were asked for input by a male state legislator. We look at two types of signals that voters can send. First, voters may ask women to work on more issues. Second, they may provide women with less positive feedback. If women think that voters are disappointed with their current performance, they may work harder to make voters happier. If either or both of these signals are being sent, then it may lead to the observed pattern of women working harder than men in the legislature.

Authors

• Daniel M. Butler, WUSTL

• Elin Naurin, University of Gothenburg

• Patrik Ohberg, The Department of Political Science at the University of Gothenburg