The Ties That Double Bind: Social Roles and Women's Underrepresentation in Politics

This paper theorizes three forms of bias that might limit women's representation: outright hostility, double standards, and a double bind whereby desired traits present bigger burdens for women than men. We examine these forms of bias using conjoint experiments derived from several original sur...

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Bibliographic Details
Published inThe American political science review Vol. 112; no. 3; pp. 525 - 541
Main Authors TEELE, DAWN LANGAN, KALLA, JOSHUA, ROSENBLUTH, FRANCES
Format Journal Article
LanguageEnglish
Published New York, USA Cambridge University Press 01.08.2018
Subjects
Aspiration
Bias
Candidates
Discrimination
Disproportionate Representation
Double standards
Election results
Elites
Ethnic Groups
Evidence
Expectations
Experiments
Families & family life
Female roles
Females
Gender
Gender Discrimination
Government Employees
Hostility
Households
Housework
Human subjects
Males
Marginality
Marital status
Negative campaigning
Partisanship
Political campaigns
Political Candidates
Political parties
Political science
Politicians
Politics
Polls & surveys
Preferences
Presidential elections
Primaries & caucuses
Profiles
Public Officials
Representation
Research Design
Respondents
Roles
Same sex marriage
Sex Stereotypes
Social roles
Social sciences
Voters
Women
United States > US
California
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Summary:This paper theorizes three forms of bias that might limit women's representation: outright hostility, double standards, and a double bind whereby desired traits present bigger burdens for women than men. We examine these forms of bias using conjoint experiments derived from several original surveys—a population survey of American voters and two rounds of surveys of American public officials. We find no evidence of outright discrimination or of double standards. All else equal, most groups of respondents prefer female candidates, and evaluate men and women with identical profiles similarly. But on closer inspection, all is not equal. Across the board, elites and voters prefer candidates with traditional household profiles such as being married and having children, resulting in a double bind for many women. So long as social expectations about women's familial commitments cut against the demands of a full-time political career, women are likely to remain underrepresented in politics.
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ISSN:0003-0554
1537-5943
DOI:10.1017/S0003055418000217