Can the Fairer Sex Save the Day? Voting for Women After Corruption Scandals

• In Event: Gender and Voting Behavior

Abstract

In an election subsequent to a corruption scandal, are voters more likely to continue their support of the scandalized political party when that party puts forth female candidates instead of male candidates? Due to the gender stereotype of the “fairer sex,” women are often seen as more honest than men, and, in the contexts of governance, less corrupt. In experimental and survey settings, respondents frequently report that they anticipate women politicians to be better at combatting corruption and less likely to be involved in corrupt behavior than men. Recent studies have examined how political parties may use this stereotype to their advantage by strategically running more women candidates in elections when corruption is salient in order to signal more honest governance and a cleaner image. Previous work shows that political parties do increase the number of female candidates on their party lists when corruption perceptions are high amongst the electorate, but no study has yet tested if voters actually respond more positively to female candidates in a post-scandal environment when a party’s corrupt behavior is known. Is this feminization strategy effective in elections? With an original survey experiment set in the Latin American context, this study tests if the presence of female candidates after a corruption scandal can mitigate potential electoral losses for the guilty political party.

Author

• Emily Elia, Rice University