Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-gbm5v Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-25T07:37:00.107Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Putting Scandinavian Equality to the Test: An Experimental Evaluation of Gender Stereotyping of Political Candidates in a Sample of Norwegian Voters

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  03 March 2009

Richard E. Matland
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Extract

The issue of the equitable representation of women in political bodies has concerned both political activists and political scientists for a number of years. Greater representation of women is predicted to have a number of effects on public policy and social interactions. Among these effects are changes in policy priorities, improved system legitimacy and a change in the political culture as old stereotypes disappear and women come to be viewed as the equals of men in the political sphere. The view has been that if women were to get into office, they could prove themselves effective. Therefore societal views on women as political leaders would change, and old stereotypes as to their limited competence would break down. The hope of many is that as women politicians become commonplace, a country's political culture would change so that gender is no longer a relevant consideration in evaluating political leaders. This Note directly tests the assertion that increased participation by women leads to this genderneutral view of political leaders.

Type
Notes and Comments
Information
British Journal of Political Science , Volume 24 , Issue 2 , April 1994 , pp. 273 - 292
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1994

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

1 Bern, Sandra L., ‘Gender Schema Theory: A Cognitive Account of Sex Typing’. Psychological Review, 88 (1981). 354–64.Google Scholar

2 Inter Parliamentary Union, ‘Distribution of Seats Between Men and Women in National Parliaments: Statistical Data from 1945 to 30 June 1991’ (Geneva: International Centre for Parliamentary Documentation (CIDP) Scries ‘Reports and Documents’, No. 18, 1992).Google Scholar

3 The countries with the highest proportion of women in democratically elected national legislatures are Sweden at 34 per cent, Finland at 39 per cent and Norway at 40 per cent.

4 Welch, Susan and Studlar, Donley T., ‘Multi-Member Districts and the Representation of Women: Evidence from Britain and the United States’, Journal of Politics, 52 (1990), 391–112.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

5 Central Bureau of Statistics, Norwegian Official Statistics, Municipal Council Elections, 1987 (Oslo: Statistisk Sentralbyraa, 1988)Google Scholar; Torp, Ole Christian, Stortinget: I Navn og Tall: 1989–1993 (Oslo: Universitetsforlaget, 1990).Google Scholar

6 Spohn, Cassia and Gillespie, Diane, ‘Adolescents' Willingness to Vote for a Woman for President: The Effect of Gender and Race’, Women and Politics, 7 (1987), 31–49.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

7 Jennings, M. Kent and Niemi, Richard G., The Political Character of Adolescence (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1975).Google Scholar

8 This period spans from 1986 to the present.

9 Sapiro, Virginia, ‘If US Senator Baker Were a Woman: An Experimental Study of Candidate Images’, Political Psychology, 2 (1982), 61–83.Google Scholar

10 Adams, William C., ‘Candidate Characteristics, Office of Election, and Voter Responses’, Experimental Study of Politics. 4 (1975). 76–91;Google ScholarEkstrand, Laurie E. and Eckert, William A., ‘The Impact of Candidate's Sex on Voter Choice’, Western Political Quarterly, 34 (1981), 78–87CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Garrett, John C. and Brooks, Charles I., ‘Effect of Ballot Color, Sex of Candidate, and Sex of College Students of Voting Age on Their Voting behavior’, Psychological Reports, 60 (1987). 39–44CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Sigelman, Lee and Sigelman, Carol K.. ‘sexism, Racism, and Ageism in Voting Behavior An Experimental Analysis’, Social Psychology Quarterly, 45 (1982), 263–9CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Spohn, and Gillespie, , ‘Adolescents' Willingness to Vote for a Woman for President’.Google Scholar

11 Garrett, and Brooks, , ‘Effect of Ballot Color, Sex of Candidate, and Sex of College Students’Google Scholar; Sigelman, and Sigelman, , ‘sexism, Racism, and Ageism in Voting Behavior’.Google Scholar

12 Ekstrand, and Eckert, , ‘The Impact of Candidate's Sex on Voter Choice’Google Scholar; Spohn, and Gillespie, , ‘Adolescents' Willingness to Vote for a Woman for President’.Google Scholar

13 Sapiro, , ‘If US Senator Baker Were a Woman’.Google Scholar

14 Rosenwasser, Shirley M., Rogers, Robyn R., Fling, Sheila, Silvers-Pickens, Kayla and Butemeyer, John, ‘Attitudes Toward Women and Men in Politics: Perceived Male and Female Candidate Competencies and Participant Personality Characteristics’, Political Psychology, 8 (1987), 191–200CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Rosenwasser, Shirley M. and Seale, Jana, ‘Attitudes Toward a Hypothetical Male or Female Presidential Candidate - A Research Note’, Political Psychology, 9 (1988), 591–8CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Rosenwasser, Shirley M. and Dean, Norma G., ‘Gender Role and Political Office: Effects of Perceived Masculinity/Femininity of Candidate and Political Office’, Psychology of Women Quarterly, 13 (1989), 77–85.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

15 Kahn, Kim Fridkin, ‘Does Being Male Help? An Investigation of the Effect of Candidate Gender and Campaign Coverage on Evaluations of US Senate Candidates’ (unpublished doctoral dissertation. University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, 1990).Google Scholar

16 Leeper, Mark Stephen, ‘The Impact of Prejudice on Female Candidates: An Experimental Look at Voter Inference’, American Politics Quarterly, 19 (1991). 248–61.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

17 By allowing respondents to choose which party speech they read an additional variable is introduced into the design. An alternative research design would have been to present students with no choice, but force them to read a specific party speech. I chose to allow students to select the speech they would read for four reasons. (1) The cover story emphasized the possibility of their participating in their party's choosing of candidates. A forced choice would have been inconsistent with the cover story. (2) In a pre-test I found that respondents who were a considerable political distance from the candidate were very negative to the candidate and gender had no effect. Candidate's gender did have an effect, in the pre-test, for those who identified politically with the speaker. (3) Allowing respondents to choose their party freely provides the opportunity to test whether women politicians are perceived differently across different political parties. (4) To the degree problems might be caused by party self-selection, they are easily controlled by making intra-party comparisons. For each packet both candidates were of the same gender, so candidate gender could not affect the respondent's speech choice.

18 I am greatly indebted to Jostein Ryssevik of NSD for his help in both identifying schools and in gaining access to the schools.

19 Nisbett, Richard E. and Ross, Lee, Human Inference: Strategies and Shortcomings of Social Judgment (Englewood Cliffs. NJ: Prentice-Hall. 1980).Google Scholar

20 Conover, Pamela Johnston and Feldman, Stanley. ‘Where Is the Schema? Critiques’, American Political Science Review, 85 (1992). 1364–9.Google Scholar

21 Bern, Sandra L., ‘Gender Schema Theory: A Cognitive Account of Sex Typing’.Google Scholar

22 Both Jonassen, Christen T., in Value Systems and Personality in a Western Civilization: Norwegians in Europe and America (Columbus: Ohio State University Press, 1983)Google Scholar, and Torgersen, Ulf, ‘De Politiske Institusjonene’ in Ramsoy, Natalie R. and Vaa, Mariken, eds, Det Norske Samfunnet. Bind 2 (Oslo: Gyldendahl, 1975)Google Scholar, argue that at the centre of Norwegian political culture is a strong egalitarian base.

23 These results do not meet standard statistical tests, but that may be partially caused by small sample size. The pattern found for these policies is consistent with the results for the other policies.

24 Kahn, , Does Being Male Help?Google Scholar; Leeper, , ‘The Impact of Prejudice on Female Candidates’Google Scholar; Rosenwasser, and Dean, , ‘Gender Role and Political Office’Google Scholar; Sapiro, , ‘If US Senator Baker Were a Woman’.Google Scholar

25 Bem, , ‘Gender Schema Theory’.Google Scholar

26 Bystydzienski, Jill M., ‘Influence of Women's Culture on Public Politics in Norway’, in Bystydzicnski, Jill M., ed., Women Transforming Politics (Indianapolis: Indiana University Press, 1992).Google Scholar

27 Bystydzienski, , ‘Influence of Women's Culture on Public Politics in Norway’Google Scholar; Krogstad, Anne, ‘Kvinnelige topp politikere: i menns fotspor?’, Norsk Statsvitenskapelig Tidskrift, 7 (1991). 105–20Google Scholar; Skjeie, Hege, ‘The Rhetoric of Difference: On Women's Inclusion into Political Elites’. Politics and Society, 19 (1991), 233–63.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

28 Skjeie, , “The Rhetoric of Difference”.Google Scholar

29 One obvious criticism of this suggestion is that the causality runs not from issue importance to women's strength, but from women's strength to issues. That is, issues such as child day care and care for the elderly first become important when women start to be represented in substantial numbers in legislative bodies.

30 Norris, Pippa, ‘Women's Legislative Participation in Western Europe’, Western European Politics, 8 (1985), 90–101CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Putnam, Robert, The Comparative Study of Political Elites (Englewood Cliffs. NJ: Prentice-Hall, 1976)Google Scholar. See, however, Skard, Torild and Haavio-Mannila, Elina, ‘Equality Between the Sexes - Myth or Reality in Norden?’ Daedalus, 113 (1984), 141–67.Google Scholar

31 Matland, Richard E., ‘Institutional Variables Affecting Female Representation in National Legislatures: The Case of Norway’. Journal of Politics, 55 (1993), 737–55CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Skjeie, , ‘The Rhetoric of Difference’.Google Scholar

32 Valen, Henry, ‘The Recruitment of Parliamentary Nominees in Norway’, Scandinavian Political Studies, 1 (1966), 121–66CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Valen, Henry, ‘Norway: Decentralization and Group Representation’ in Gallagher, Michael and Marsh, Michael, eds, Candidate Selection in Comparative Perspective: The Secret Garden of Politics (London: Sage Publications, 1988).Google Scholar