Hostname: page-component-5c6d5d7d68-ckgrl Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-08-15T22:41:28.226Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Does Running with a Woman Help? Evidence from U.S. Gubernatorial Elections

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  29 March 2006

Richard L. Fox  and
Zoe M. Oxley
Richard L. Fox
Affiliation:
Union College
Zoe M. Oxley
Affiliation:
Union College
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

A higher percentage of women consistently run as candidates and serve as the lieutenant governor when running on the same ticket with the governor than for any other state elective office. In this article, we provide the first examination of how running with a woman affects vote choice. We conclude that running-mate sex does influence vote choice in gubernatorial elections, even when we take into account a wide range of individual-level and electoral characteristics that are related to voter preference. Further, voter preference for tickets containing women running mates is not consistent, but rather depends upon certain electoral circumstances. Our findings have implications for assessing how voters respond to women candidates and how gender plays into strategic calculations in state-level politics.An earlier version of this paper was presented at the 2004 American Political Science Association Meeting. This research was funded by a grant from the Dean of Arts and Sciences, Union College. We thank Mark Anderson, Alla Abramov, Rhobie Langwig, and Nish Patel for assistance with data collection and Jeff Koch and the anonymous reviewers for valuable feedback on the project. Special thanks go to Bruce Connolly, Courtney Seymour, and David Gerhan of Schaffer Library, Union College, for locating data that was especially difficult to find.

Type
Research Article
Information
Politics & Gender , Volume 1 , Issue 4 , December 2005 , pp. 525 - 546
Copyright
© 2005 The Women and Politics Research Section of the American Political Science Association

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

Adams, William. 1975. “Candidate Characteristics, Office of Election and Voter Response.” Experimental Study of Politics 4 (1): 76–91.Google Scholar
Alexander, Deborah, and Kristi Andersen. 1993. “Gender as a Factor in the Attributions of Leadership Traits.” Political Research Quarterly 46 (September): 527–45.Google Scholar
Atkeson, Lonna Rae, and Randall W. Partin. 1995. “Economic and Referendum Voting: A Comparison of Gubernatorial and Senatorial Elections.” American Political Science Review 89 (March): 99–107.Google Scholar
Bonk, Kathy. 1988. “The Selling of the Gender Gap.” In The Politics of the Gender Gap, ed. Carol Mueller. Beverly Hills, CA: Sage, 82–101.
Burrell, Barbara C. 1994. A Woman's Place Is in the House: Campaigning for Congress in the Feminist Era. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press.
Carsey, Thomas M., and Gerald C. Wright. 1998. “State and National Factors in Gubernatorial and Senatorial Elections.” American Journal of Political Science 42 (July): 994–1002.Google Scholar
CAWP (Center for American Women, and Politics). 1990, 1994, 1998, 2002. “Women in State Legislatures.” New Brunswick, NJ: Center for American Women and Politics.
CAWP (Center for American Women, and Politics). 2005. “Women in Elective Office 2005.” New Brunswick, NJ: Center for American Women and Politics.
Cook, Elizabeth Adell, Ted G. Jelen, and Clyde Wilcox. 1994. “Issue Voting in Gubernatorial Elections: Abortion and Post-Webster Politics.” Journal of Politics 56 (February): 187–99.Google Scholar
Dolan, Kathleen A. 1997. “Gender Differences in Support for Women Candidates: Is There a Glass Ceiling in American Politics?” Women & Politics 17 (2): 27–41.Google Scholar
Dolan, Kathleen A. 2004. Voting for Women: How the Public Evaluates Women Candidates. Boulder, CO: Westview Press.
Elazar, Daniel. 1984. American Federalism: A View from the States. 3d ed. New York: Harper and Row.
Fox, Richard L. 1997. Gender Dynamics in Congressional Elections. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications.
Friedrich, Robert J. 1982. “In Defense of Multiplicative Terms in Multiple Regression Equations.” American Journal of Political Science 26 (November): 797–833.Google Scholar
Hansen, Susan B. 1993. “Differences in Public Policies Toward Abortion: Electoral and Policy Context.” In Understanding the New Politics of Abortion, ed. Malcolm L. Goggin. Newbury Park, CA: Sage Publications, 222–48.
Herrnson, Paul S., J. Celeste Lay, and Atiya Kai Stokes. 2003. “Women Running ‘as Women’: Candidate Gender, Campaign Issues, and Voter-Targeting Strategies.” Journal of Politics 65 (February): 244–55.Google Scholar
Hill, David B. 1981. “Political Culture and Female Political Representation.” Journal of Politics 43 (February): 159–68.Google Scholar
Huddy, Leonie, and Nayda Terkildsen. 1993a. “Gender Stereotypes and the Perception of Male and Female Candidates.” American Journal of Political Science 37 (January): 119–47.Google Scholar
Huddy, Leonie, and Nayda Terkildsen. 1993b. “The Consequences of Gender Stereotypes for Women Candidates at Different Levels and Types of Offices.” Political Research Quarterly 46 (September): 503–25.Google Scholar
Jaccard, James, Robert Turrisi, and Choi K. Wan. 1990. Interaction Effects in Multiple Regression. Newbury Park, CA: Sage Publications.
Jacobson, Gary C. 2004. The Politics of Congressional Elections. 6th ed. New York: Longman.
Koch, Jeffrey W. 2000. “Do Citizens Apply Gender Stereotypes to Infer Candidates' Ideological Orientations?” Journal of Politics 62 (May): 414–29.Google Scholar
Koch, Jeffrey W. 2002. “Gender Stereotypes and Citizens' Impressions of House Candidates' Ideological Orientations.” American Journal of Political Science 46 (April): 453–62.Google Scholar
Lawless, Jennifer L. 2004. “Women, War, and Winning Elections: Gender Stereotyping in the Post-September 11th Era.” Political Research Quarterly 57 (September): 479–90.Google Scholar
Leeper, Mark S. 1991. “The Impact of Prejudice on Female Candidates: An Experimental Look at Voter Inference.” American Politics Quarterly 19 (April): 248–61.Google Scholar
McDermott, Monika L. 1997. “Voting Cues in Low-Information Elections: Candidate Gender as a Social Information Variable in Contemporary US Elections.” American Journal of Political Science 41 (January): 270–83.Google Scholar
McDermott, Monika L. 1998. “Race and Gender Cues in Low-Information Elections.” Political Research Quarterly 51 (December): 895–918.Google Scholar
Norrander, Barbara, and Clyde Wilcox. 1998. “The Geography of Gender Power: Women in State Legislatures.” In Women and Elective Office, ed. Sue Thomas and Clyde Wilcox. New York: Oxford University Press, 103–17.
Plutzer, Eric, and John Zipp. 1996. “Identity Politics, Partisanship, and Voting for Women Candidates.” Public Opinion Quarterly 60 (Spring): 30–57.Google Scholar
Ranney, Austin. 1976. “Parties in State Politics.” In Politics in the American States: A Comparative Analysis, 3d ed., ed. Herbert Jacob and Kenneth N. Vines. Boston: Little, Brown, 51–92.
Rosenthal, Cindy Simon. 1995. “The Role of Gender in Descriptive Representation.” Political Research Quarterly 48 (September): 599–611.Google Scholar
Rosenwasser, Shirley M., and Norma G. Dean. 1989. “Gender Role and Political Office: Effects of Perceived Masculinity/Femininity of Candidate and Political Office.” Psychology of Women Quarterly 13 (March): 77–85.Google Scholar
Rosenwasser, Shirley M., and Jean Seale. 1988. “Attitudes Toward a Hypothetical Male or Female Presidential Candidate.” Political Psychology 9 (December): 591–98.Google Scholar
Rule, Wilma. 1990. “Why More Women Are State Legislators: A Research Note.” Western Political Quarterly 43 (June): 437–48.Google Scholar
Sanbonmatsu, Kira. 2002. “Gender Stereotypes and Vote Choice.” American Journal of Political Science 46 (January): 20–34.Google Scholar
Sanbonmatsu, Kira. 2006. Where Women Run. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press.
Sapiro, Virginia. 1981–82. “If U.S. Senator Baker Were a Woman: An Experimental Study of Candidate Images.” Political Psychology 3 (Spring-Summer): 61–83.Google Scholar
Schroeder, Larry D., David L. Sjoquist, and Paula E. Stephan. 1986. Understanding Regression Analysis: An Introductory Guide. Newbury Park, CA: Sage Publications.
Seltzer, Richard A., Jody Newman, and Melissa Voorhees Leighton. 1997. Sex as a Political Variable: Women as Candidates and Voters in U.S. Elections. London: Lynne Rienner.
Stein, Robert M. 1990. “Economic Voting for Governor and U.S. Senator: The Electoral Consequences of Federalism.” Journal of Politics 52 (February): 2953.Google Scholar
Svoboda, Craig J. 1995. “Retrospective Voting in Gubernatorial Elections: 1982 and 1986.” Political Research Quarterly 48 (March): 135–50.Google Scholar
Thomas, Sue, and Clyde Wilcox, eds. 1998. Women and Elective Office. New York: Oxford University Press.
Tolbert, Caroline J., and Gertrude A. Steuernagel. 2001. “Women Lawmakers, State Mandates and Women's Health.” Women & Politics 22 (2): 1–39.CrossRefGoogle Scholar