Cracking Gender Stereotypes? Challenges Women Political Leaders Face

Biases against women politicians

There are various reasons for the under-representation of women in political institutions. Electoral systems can influence how likely women are to be nominated for office. Political parties in countries with a proportional representation system nominate women at a higher rate than those in countries with a single member district plurality system, such as first-past-the-post used in the UK (Matland 2005). Women are less likely to be recruited as eligible candidates, ultimately excluding women from the political process. Young women have also been found to be less politically ambitious than young men, which means they wait longer before entering politics (Fox and Lawless 2014).

What happens, however, when women actually try to break the barriers and take the plunge to become officeholders? Research shows that even once they run for office, differences still persist in the experiences of male and female politicians. Besides the patriarchal set ups and norms that differentially position men and women, stereotypes can be one of the most significant obstacles for female leadership. Voters have limited time and energy to devote to political matters; therefore, they rely on stereotypes to help them evaluate political leaders.

Stereotyping, or assigning characteristics to political leaders of a certain group, is largely gender-based. Female politicians are seen as kind, warm, and compassionate, whereas male politicians are typically viewed as assertive, tough, and competent. Although the extent to which these stereotypes help or hurt female candidates electorally is debatable, they indicate that women are often not considered ‘leadership material’. Particularly, voters tend to show a preference for stereotypically masculine traits over feminine characteristics when determining who should hold high office (Huddy and Terkildsen 1993).

These gender-based assumptions about political leaders raise two important implications. First, women are less likely to be considered as leaders, which has long-term consequences on the likelihood of women entering politics. When girls are socialised into believing that women are less suited to being leaders, they are less likely to see public service as a career option. The acceptance of these stereotypes also suggests that the gender disparity in political institutions is difficult to overcome, if the understanding of women’s and men’s roles continue to remain conventional.

Second, even when women are brave enough to enter politics, female politicians face a paradoxical challenge. Often, women must possess and perform masculine characteristics associated with leadership to gain acceptance but in doing so, women can be seen as aggressive and cold and risk driving voters away. However, if women do not exert masculinity, they are seen as too feminine to be competent leaders. In other words, female political leaders are always in a catch-22 situation. When female politicians face this double-bind, how should they act?

In addition to personality traits, gender also plays a role in voters’ evaluations of politicians’ ideologies and capabilities in representing their interests. Voters consider women to be more liberal than men, leaving women less popular among right-wing voters than men are (Sanbonmatsu and Dolan 2009). Similarly, gendered biases mean that female political leaders are also expected to be more capable of dealing with ‘feminine’ issues – such as welfare, healthcare, education and family – whereas men are expected to be better equipped to handle the economy, defence, military and foreign policy.

These gender biases also sideline women, potentially limiting their political careers. The type of committees that female MPs are assigned to has significant implications, as committee work provides MPs an opportunity to develop and shape policies. Yet, senior members of parliament – a traditionally male-dominated institution – often place women on committees that are less desired, with scarce political resources or less opportunities to exert influence.

Gendered stereotyping can also determine how men and women politicians act legislatively. Constituents often expect women MPs to be experts in feminine issues, leaving them little choice but to sponsor bills related to issues that they are expected to represent because of their gender. These gendered expectations further marginalise women’s place in parliament. Not only are women isolated to ‘women’s domain’ committees, but they are pressured to stay on these committees (Schwindt-Bayer 2006). Even when women have shattered the barriers to gain a seat at the table, they still do not have full agency in how they represent their constituents.

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Are political parties and the media helping women?

Not only do voters perceive and evaluate politicians based on gender stereotypes, scholarship also shows that gender biases do not transcend political parties (Sanbonmatsu and Dolan 2009). Regardless of which party a woman belongs to, she is likely to be judged based on her gender. Nevertheless, the implications for how gender stereotypes may hurt or help women differ across parties. In the United States, gender stereotypes appear to prevent Republican women from entering the political arena as they are more likely to stereotype themselves. Women who hold conservative ideology may be less confident about women’s competency in general, making them less likely to see women as well equipped politically as men are. This finding could also explain why the Conservative Party in Britain has the lowest percentage of women candidates among all political parties.

In addition to political parties having an interaction effect with gender stereotypes, the media is also a source of bias against women. Print and broadcast media often employ and perpetuate gender stereotypes when representing female politicians. More than that, media coverage of female politicians can be both blatantly sexist, as well as subtly discriminatory. Female MPs are allocated less speaking time than male MPs by the news (Hooghe et al. 2015). At the same time, issues such as female political leaders’ appearance and wardrobe choices are paid more attention than that of their male counterparts. A comprehensive guide to Theresa May’s favourite brands appeared in the Telegraph, for example. How many times were David Cameron’s or Tony Blair’s fashion moments reported when they were the Prime Minister? In 2008, German Chancellor Angela Merkel’s choice of dress for a gala event prompted headlines in the Daily Mail and elsewhere about ‘Merkel’s weapons of mass destruction’. Female political leaders’ domestic life is also under the spotlight. Women politicians, such as the New Zealand Prime Minister, Jacinda Ardern, are frequently asked about how they juggle their political responsibilities as mothers and wives, whereas men politicians’ abilities to balance work and family are rarely questioned.

In general, the media often represent women politicians as women first and politicians second. Not only are gender stereotypes and norms reinforced by the media, women politicians continue to be belittled when their male counterparts are represented as the default in the political arena. This discrepancy in how the media construct images of male and female politicians can have long term consequences. Such gendered representations of female politicians also influence how the public view the abilities and leadership of men and women. This can quickly become a vicious cycle: as the general public evaluates women more harshly than men, women are less likely to run for public office because of the scrutiny and the double bind they may face. Consequently, gender parity cannot be achieved in political institutions.

Crucially, recent research shows that stereotyping is not always an automatic response of voters towards politicians. Instead, voters assign female candidates feminine traits when they are prompted to do so by the media (Bauer 2015). When political campaigns portray women candidates using stereotypes, those who are exposed to these biased messages are more likely to view these candidates in a stereotypical way. This suggests that stereotyping is not always automatic; instead, it can be constructed and influenced by media and political campaigns.

Cracking gender stereotypes

Women are certainly far from being equally represented in political institutions. Increasing parity signals that progress is being made but it is also essential to examine how female political leaders are treated once they are on the paths to or in positions of power. Research indicates that women candidates and officeholders are biased and discriminated against because of their gender, which results in women having to do more to prove themselves in the political arena. However, it is possible to mediate – or lessen – gender biases by resisting gendered assumptions.

If gender stereotyping is not innate, what can be done? Clearly, gender biases cannot be eliminated overnight. Concrete actions need to be taken toward eliminating gender-based biases. Before effective changes can be made, though, it is imperative to recognise how power is structured in electoral institutions, in political parties, in the media, and in our everyday lives. Gender stereotypes of female politicians are derived from the unequal power distributions in the family, in the community, and in society.

Gender norms that are imposed upon women often act as a bar on women entering politics. On the one hand, girls are socialised into believing that they do not belong in the political arena because politics is a men’s domain. Although young women are less politically ambitious than young men are, Fox and Lawless (2010) also demonstrate that young women are as likely as men to consider public office as a profession if they are encouraged. This finding illustrates the importance of transforming public attitudes toward gender norms by recruiting women and helping women envision themselves as equal to their male counterparts.

On the other hand, family responsibilities are a major barrier for women to engage in public affairs. Since the 2015 general election, 45 per cent of the women in the House of Commons have no children whereas only 28 per cent of men are childless. Underlying this striking difference is the fact that women with familial responsibilities are less likely to enter politics. One way to combat that would be to ensure equal contribution of domestic labour between men and women. Moreover, this difference also suggests that women have a harder time balancing family and political work, possibly forcing female MPs to choose between family and a political career. Another way to overcome this dilemma would be for Westminster to set a leading example by allowing breastfeeding, providing childcare, and offering paid family leave. While these issues seem to only concern women, it is also necessary to hold male politicians accountable for making political institutions an inclusive place for women.

Changing the way women in politics are viewed and providing female politicians with better opportunities to balance family and political life will not shatter the patriarchy overnight, but these moves could be the starting point for eliminating the obstacles for women to be politically present. Moreover, they could help break down the everyday sexism that suggests that in politics – or in any other walk of life – women’s and men’s abilities are innately different.