2025/07/31 by Hirofumi Miwa, Ikuma Ogura · 1 voice
Social Sciences · #Electoral Systems and Political Participation #Gender Diversity and Inequality #Gender Politics and Representation
paper · pdf · doi:10.1080/10584609.2025.2519159
openalex publication_date 2025/07/31 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/08/01
Voter preferences for a politician’s gender have been considered a potential factor of women’s underrepresentation in politics. Although recent studies demonstrate that voters do not generally dislike women candidates in elections, they may still doubt women’s competence and view persuasive behavior as counter-stereotypical for women. This may lead to the prediction that female politicians are less effective in persuading voters through their policy statements compared to men. However, evidence on this issue is scarce and mixed, with existing studies often having notable weaknesses in their experimental design. To address these problems, we carefully designed and conducted two preregistered survey experiments in the U.S. and Japan, where electoral rules are candidate-centered, and women’s underrepresentation is severe compared to other developed countries. We asked respondents how much they agreed with the policy statement of a fictitious politician whose gender was randomized in a mocked campaign website or a municipal council newsletter. We also varied the statement’s issue area and ideological position to examine whether persuasion is more effective when it aligns with gender stereotypes. The results showed no significant difference in policy persuasiveness between women and men politicians, and post hoc equivalence tests suggest the nonexistence of even minimal effects in both countries. Moreover, we found partial evidence that women politicians had an advantage when they claimed gender-stereotype statements in Japan, while the opposite was true in the U.S.