Poster #187 - Are presidents bossy? Boys' and girls' concepts of presidents differentially predict political aspirations

• In Event: 2-110 - Poster Session 07
  In Poster Session: PS 07 Section - Sex, Gender

Integrative Statement

Across the globe, women are underrepresented as political leaders. The United States, despite its egalitarian principles, typifies this trend: As of 2018, women account for only 19.3% of the House of Representatives and 23% of the Senate. Why do women continue to be so underrepresented in the political sphere?

Here, we test the idea that disparities in political leadership can be traced back in part to gender stereotypes that children are exposed to. Many cultures portray men as more competent and agentic (ambitious, good at being in charge) than women, and women as more warm and caring than men (e.g., Fiske et al., 2002). Given that competence and agency are central to the concept of a political leader (e.g., Eagly & Karau, 2002; Heilman, 2012), these ubiquitous gender stereotypes may signal to girls that they are not suited for a career in politics.

In the present study, we (1) investigated children’s concepts of presidents (a familiar and important type of political leader) to determine the degree to which children associate competence, agency, and warmth with being a president at various ages, and (2) tested whether children’s concepts of presidents predict their interest in being a president when they grow up (e.g., do girls who think presidents have to be agentic or competent display less interest in becoming one?).

To assess concepts of presidents, we asked children (N = 56, 46.4% girls; age range = 5 to 11; M = 7.70, SD = 1.67) a series of questions that tapped whether they thought presidents need to be agentic (e.g., “like being in charge”), competent (e.g., “smart”), and warm (e.g., “nice”).

To assess interest in political leadership, we asked children, “Do you want to be the president when you grow up?” Affirmative answers were followed up with, “Do you want to be president a little, some, or a lot?” Children’s responses were combined across these two questions and ultimately ranged from 0 (didn’t want to be president) to 3 (wanted to be president a lot).

With respect to children’s concepts of presidents, our results revealed that boys’ and girls’ ideas about whether presidents need to be agentic, competent, and warm diverged across time. Whereas girls thought that relatively high values on these dimensions are needed to be president across the ages in our sample, boys showed a significant age-related decrease in the extent to which they thought presidents need to exhibit these traits. In other words, relative to older girls, older boys perceived the bar for being a president as being lower.

These concepts mattered for children’s interest in political leadership: As Figures 1 and 2 show, girls’ interest in being president decreased if they thought presidents need to be high in agency and competence, whereas boys’ interest increased. No significant patterns were obtained for warmth.

These findings provide preliminary support for the idea that gender disparities in political leadership have roots in childhood. Interventions to promote women’s involvement in political leadership should consider targeting young children.

Authors

• Rachel A Leshin, New York University
  Presenting Author

• Reut Vraneski-Shachnai, Cornell University
  Non-Presenting Author

• Andrei Cimpian, New York University
  Non-Presenting Author