2025/04/07 by Christina Wolbrecht, David E. Campbell · 2 voices
Psychology · Social Sciences · #Electoral Systems and Political Participation #Gender Politics and Representation #Gender, Security, and Conflict #Political science #Psychology #Social psychology
paper · pdf · doi:10.1007/s11109-025-10029-3
published in Political Behavior 48(1), 253-272 (Springer Science+Business Media)
openalex publication_date 2025/04/07 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/23
Abstract Do girls exposed to women politicians become more politically engaged adults, as many politicians and scholars predict? To our knowledge, no previous research has examined whether exposure to women politicians in adolescence contributes to a greater likelihood of political participation in adulthood . We employ a panel study that followed more than 6,000 adolescents into adulthood, controlling for a range of individual and contextual variables associated with both turnout and the presence of women candidates. We find that adolescent girls who were exposed to a woman running a viable campaign for a visible office in 2002 were more likely to vote in both presidential and non-presidential elections as adults than those who did not experience any such women candidates. The effect is concentrated among women who grew up in less political households; absent political socialization in the family, the presence of women politicians made a difference. Men’s turnout is unrelated to exposure to women candidates in adolescence.