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Gender and Elections: An Examination of the 2006 Canadian Federal Election

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  17 December 2008

Marie Rekkas
Marie Rekkas*
Affiliation:
Simon Fraser University
*
Marie Rekkas, Department of Economics, Simon Fraser University, 8888 University Drive, Burnaby, British Columbia, CanadaV5A 1S6, mrekkas@sfu.ca
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Abstract

Abstract. The existing literature on gender effects in the electoral process offers little evidence of significant gender vote share differentials. In this paper it is shown that for the 2006 Canadian federal election, once candidate campaign spending is introduced into the model with appropriate flexibility in the vote share responsiveness across genders, significant differences are found to exist between male and female candidates. The findings suggest that, for equal levels of spending, male incumbents have a vote share advantage relative to female incumbents, though this vote share advantage is found to diminish with increased expenditures. Female non-incumbent candidates, on the other hand, have a vote share advantage over male non-incumbent candidates for higher levels of expenditure and this advantage was found to increase with increased expenditures.

Résumé. Les écrits traitant des effets du genre dans le processus électoral offrent peu de preuves d'un écart significatif dans le pourcentage des voix selon le genre. Cet article montrera que, dans le contexte des élections fédérales canadiennes de 2006, une fois que les dépenses de campagne des candidats sont introduites dans le modèle avec la flexibilité adéquate sur la réceptivité du pourcentage des voix selon les genres, on découvre que des différences significatives existent entre les candidats masculins et féminins. Le résultat des recherches montre que pour des dépenses équivalentes, les titulaires masculins ont un avantage sur le pourcentage des voix par rapport aux titulaires de sexe féminin bien qu'il s'avère que cet avantage diminue lorsque les dépenses augmentent. D'autre part, les candidates féminines non-titulaires ont un avantage sur le pourcentage des voix par rapport aux candidats masculins non-titulaires quand les dépenses sont plus élevées et cet avantage s'avère augmenter lorsque les dépenses augmentent.

Type
Research Article
Information
Canadian Journal of Political Science/Revue canadienne de science politique , Volume 41 , Issue 4 , December 2008 , pp. 987 - 1001
Copyright
Copyright © Canadian Political Science Association 2008

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