Reconsidering Gender Stereotypes with an Intersectional Lens

Abstract

The political stereotypes literature has long considered how gender impacts voters perceptions of political candidates. This literature has largely suggested that voters prescribe stereotyped policy competencies and personality characteristics to women that are distinct from that prescribed to men. In the focus on understanding gender differences, the literature has largely not considered how women of color are perceived by voters. Though there is evidence both on the dimensions of race and gender, distinctly, of political stereotypes, there is a reason to believe that women of color are in fact perceived in a unique way by voters. To understand how perceptions of women of color may be unique, we use an experiment that manipulates race of female candidates and stereotypical issue positions (feminine versus masculine issues). In addition, we bring a unique scenario to bare here in that we examine participant preferences for a Black woman candidate in a time of political crisis. We find that participants do not perceive a difference between masculine and feminine issue ownership as it pertains to Black women. However, Black women were advantaged over White women in being able to use feminine issue ownership and gain participant appeal.

Keywords: Intersectionality, gender stereotypes, experiment