Women as Political Leaders?

According to an interesting new report by the Pew Research Center, 75% of Americans believe that men and women make equally good political leaders – 16% prefer men, and 6% favor women as leaders. The report, titled “How the World Rates Women as Leaders,” explores attitudes towards men and women as political leaders in nearly 50 countries.

Peru, Spain, and Britain seem to be the most equalitarian states on this issue. In each country, 83% of respondents claimed that both sexes perform equally well as political leaders. On the other hand, just 16% of respondents in the Palestinian territories and only about 30% in Mali and Pakistan consider men and women equally well suited for leadership positions.

Interestingly, in nearly every country women are more likely than men to say that both sexes perform equally. The report notes that this trend is especially apparent in Middle Eastern, Eastern European, and Asian countries.

It also points out that in the US, about 30% of Republicans and 10% of Democrats of both sexes say that men are better political leaders. Nearly 78% of Democrats and 65% of Republicans agree that both sexes are equal.

These results become even more interesting when considered in light of an excellent article by Jennifer L. Lawless of Brown University, titled “Women, War, and Winning Elections: Gender Stereotyping in the Post-September 11^th Era,” which appeared in the prestigious scholarly journal Political Research Quarterly in September, 2004.

Noting that the percentage of Americans willing to support female presidential candidates had declined since late 2001, Lawless examined voter attitudes towards women in light of the perceived post-9/11 importance of traditionally masculine issues like military crises. She discovered that 61% of respondents believe that a male candidate is better able to handle military crises, whereas only 3% believe a women is more capable, and 36% rate both sexes equally (check out page 482 for a great table of fascinating findings).

After performing a statistical analysis of these and other results, Lawless concluded that, in the US, “gender stereotyping in the political arena continues to exist, both in terms of general traits and issue expertise that citizens accord to men and women candidates and office-holders, and regarding quite specific policy expertise associated with curbing terrorism.” (487) Individuals’ policy preferences play an important role in shaping these stereotypes – those with more hawkish preferences are more likely to stereotype in favor of men, while those on the more dovish side are less likely to reach this conclusion.

So where does this leave the business of getting women elected to political office? Well, 75% of Americans agree that men and women make equally good political leaders, but a solid majority consider men more capable of handling traditionally male issues like military crises and terrorism. As is often the case, it looks like the answer comes down to issue control. Whoever can set the issue agenda can play to his or her perceived strengths, and that is an advantage that should never be underestimated.