About
New Research on Gender in Political Psychology
Dates: March 4-5, 2011
Program Chairs
Angela Bos, The College of Wooster
Monica Schneider, Miami University (OH)
Conference Themes
The study of gender in American politics is rife with unanswered questions that can be addressed fruitfully by the application of psychological theories and concepts. We organize these questions into two categories. Because women citizens have a different relationship to politics than their male counterparts, we first focus on women as citizens. Second, since women political candidates have never occupied the two highest offices in the United States, nor have they achieved parity in state or national legislatures, we include the study of women as candidates. We welcome submissions from a variety of different disciplines, particularly political science and psychology.
Women as citizens
We particularly welcome topics that address the uniqueness of women citizens as political actors. The ‘ordinary categorization’ of women and men based on sex alone, which is all-too-common in gender research, may overlook the diversity among women and hide the specific mechanisms through which a person’s biology translates into particular political attitudes and behaviors (Sapiro 2003). Thus, we call for research that creates a more nuanced picture of sex in politics. For example, since politics by nature is the study of groups, studies that go beyond the category of ‘women’ can illuminate the ways in which women identify with their group and other relevant subgroups, such as black women, feminists, white women, Hispanic women. As Huddy (2003) points out, very little research has attempted to uncover the meaning of these group identities and how politicians might use these identities in political campaigns. Thus, we imagine that proposals in the area of women as citizens might uncover some answers to the following questions: · How and to what effect do women identify with their gender or with particular subgroups of women? How might campaigns influence group identity and capitalize on these identities? · How and why have the gender gaps in political attitudes, political behaviors, and party identification emerged and continued to exist? How do campaigns influence women voters particularly? · How and to what effect are women socialized politically as mothers, wives, working mothers, and single women?
Women as political candidates
Early research studying women as political candidates found evidence that discrimination against female political candidates is rare (Darcy and Schramm 1977; Sapiro 1981). We welcome research that pushes beyond these early findings and delves into the conditions under which voters might have a preference for a male or female candidate (Sanbonmatsu 2002; Dolan 2009). Further, we encourage research that helps resolve debates over whether gender stereotypes influence vote choice and electoral outcomes and whether party stereotypes are more important than gender stereotypes (e.g., King and Matland 2003; Matland and King 2002; Dolan 2004). We hope to see studies that examine gender stereotypes at different levels of office (like Huddy and Terkildsen 1993b), in different electoral contexts (i.e., primary versus general election), and with different electoral formats (i.e., convention delegates versus party member voting). We are also interested in how aspects of campaigns influence the election of female candidates. For example, papers could investigate media portrayal of male and female candidates, how voters perceive male and female candidates when they employ negative advertising, and how and to what effect candidates use their stereotypes throughout their campaign rhetoric.
Program Goals
Because we are focused on creating meaningful mentoring and publication in quality outlets, the conference will be set up so that all participants will be assigned to mentoring groups which will meet throughout and after the conference. Two secondary goals of our conference are to enhance participants’ teaching of gender in their courses and to improve the relationship between theory and praxis.
Meet the Organizers