The Gendered Electoral Choices: Insights from an Experiment on Gender Stereotypes in Political Issues, Parties, and the Voters Preferences for Candidates

Abstract

Political issues and political parties in the United States have been connected to different gender labels, which further influences voters’ electoral choices. This study utilized an online survey and experiment (N = 1238) with hypothetical congressional candidates to examine the influence of gender stereotypes in ten political issues and the two main political parties on individuals’ electoral choices when only limited information is offered. Results found gender stereotypes attached to political parties and topics worked as cognitive shortcuts, affecting individuals’ perception of male and female capability of handling different issues. Participants reported a higher likelihood of voting for female candidates when they showed concern for feminine topics and affiliation with the Democratic party; they also preferred male candidates when it comes to masculine issues and the Republican party. Male and female participants further reported different voting preferences, and females reported baseline preferences for female candidates.

1. Introduction

Since the first female politicians entered Congress in 1917, the total number of congresswomen has grown to 150 in the United States now in 2023 [1]. As female candidates become more visible in the field of politics, how they present themselves and how the voters view male and female candidates differently thus require more academic attention. While showing gender stereotypes in electoral choices had become “politically incorrect” in U.S. society, voters have been found to refer to a certain level of gender cues when it comes to different political topics [2, 3, 4] and political parties [3, 5]. Not only are political issues discussed in elections connected to the gendered concepts of femininity and masculinity, but political parties are also linked to the gendered topics (and further) “own” particular topics, which makes the political parties gendered as well [3, 5, 6].

These gender elements have been found as factors influencing voters’ decisions between male and female candidates. The current research, therefore, integrated studies on cognitive shortcuts in an electoral context, gender schema theory, and how political issues and parties are associated with gender features. As scholars (see [7, 8]) found research bias in studies that asked explicit questions to the participants and required participants to choose between male and female candidates who are equally qualified in a specific area, the current study utilized an experiment to rule out the potential bias caused by the participants’ social desirability with implicit cues of gendered names and icons in the context.

2. Literature review

2.1 Gender stereotypes as cognitive shortcuts in electoral decisions

The current study builds on highlighting the differences between sex and gender and their influence on individuals’ thoughts, beliefs, and behaviors differently in the context of political communication [9, 10, 11]. Specifically, sex refers to individuals’ biological differences as male, female, or intersex, indicating one’s sex hormones, reproductive system, and other biological traits [12]. Gender, on the other hand, refers to socially defined and constructed identities that are rather unstable [13]. Individuals, therefore, are born biologically as male or female sex and grow into gendered beings in society and view others with a gendered lens.

Along the same line, gender schema theory (GST) explains the gendered characteristics linked to males and females in organizing meanings for individuals [14]. The theory claims that the pr-registered scripts in society that are related to individuals’ sex would constitute “gender schema.” With the theory, a quantifiable scale, Bem Sex Role Inventory (BSRI) scale, was created to investigate individuals’ evaluation of others and their endorsement of the stereotypical male and female characteristics; the scale includes 60 items on three categories of masculine, feminine, and neutral personality traits [15]. The application of the BSRI scale found that individuals internalized society’s standards of desirable (and mostly stereotypical) behaviors as it measures what characteristics people consider appropriate for males and females. When these associations between sex and gendered characteristics consolidate, gender stereotypes then emerge as a result, becoming a generalized belief about how males and females should typically act. The current research further focuses on how these gendered characteristics and features are attached to political candidates to comprehend the voters’ decision between male and female candidates.

In the case of political advertising and campaigns, politicians usually have limited time and condensed texts to present themselves and discuss issues. In the meantime, voters have also been found to have the tendency to pay only passing attention to political information or lack the ability to organize limited information while making electoral decisions [16, 17]. Citizens may use cognitive shortcuts, especially in low-information settings, to evaluate the candidates [17, 18] or infer specific personality traits [3, 18, 19], characteristics of political parties [20], sex and gender-related stereotypes [9, 10, 11], and sexualities [21] from the candidates. These cognitive shortcuts individuals utilize can come from specific cognitive schemata they develop over time to process and interpret incoming information.

Concepts and pre-registered embedded meanings associated with the cognitive schemata work as systematic networks for human brains [22]. However, it is also the same cognitive system that could (over) generalize complicated concepts, which can make individuals make choices consistent with their stereotypes instead of information rationality, including in the electoral decision. Researchers (for example, see [6, 9, 10, 21, 23]) then found that gender stereotyping and traditional gender roles influence the voters’ choices. This study specifically investigates the gender stereotypes that are found to be linked to political issues and political parties as a part of the cognitive shortcuts voters refer to when only limited information about candidates is offered.

2.2 Gender stereotypes and political issues

Reference [3] defined the act of political gender stereotyping as “the gender-based ascription of different traits, behaviors, or political beliefs to male and female politicians” (p. 120). Take male politicians for instance, they are consistently stereotyped as stronger leaders, more competent, tougher, rational, and assertive than women [3, 18, 23]. In the BSRI scale in Ref. [15] mentioned above, masculine items also include similar stereotypical male characteristics, such as “act as a leader,” “competitive,” and “aggressive.” Researchers (e.g., [5, 6]) also found voters generally perceive male politicians as more competent in certain political issues associated with the so-called male characteristics, such as defense, military, crime, international diplomacy, foreign trade, business, and economy. In the post-September-11th context, surveys further showed voters’ higher preference for male candidates with the increasing salience of national security and military crises issues, which made female candidates disadvantaged in a male-issues-dominant political agenda [6].

On the other hand, compared to males, female politicians are given credit for dealing with particular political issues that are associated with stereotypical feminine personality traits. For instance, voters generally perceive female candidates to be more empathetic and less decisive than men [3]. At the same time, females are considered to be more caring, sensitive, compassionate, caring, honest, and accessible to the public than male politicians [2, 4]. The BSRI scale also includes feminine items like “affectionate,” “compassionate,” “gentle,” “understanding,” and “sensitive to the needs of others” [15]. Voters, consequently, were found to consider females to be more capable of handling “compassion issues” or “female issues” [3, 24, 25, 26] like healthcare [27], poverty, social welfare, education, and child-related issues [3].

U.S. female politicians also tend to have these “women’s issues” on their electoral agenda [28] and prioritize these issues in their campaigns [19, 29]. The analysis in Ref. [27] on the 2006 U.S. Congressional election then revealed that female senator candidates were viewed more positively than male candidates because they were considered more honest, caring, and more competent at dealing with healthcare-related issues. The same phenomenon was also found across nations and cultures: for example, female candidates in the U.S. and Finland both emphasize “soft” issues and personal traits to soften up their own images by expressing warmth and compassion [28]. In these cases, female characteristics and political topics are associated with the traditional domain of family [6]. As such, this study hypothesized:

H1a (gendered topics): The gender cues of political topics in candidate information will interact with the voters’ decision among male or female candidates. Specifically, H1b: voters will prefer female candidates when it comes to “feminine and compassion” topics and prefer male candidates when it comes to “masculine and tough” topics.

2.3 Gender stereotypes and political parties issue ownership

In the meantime, as political parties usually play an essential role in elections, these parties in the context of U.S. politics are often found to be associated with certain political issues. According to the theory of “issue ownership” [20], political parties are considered by the public to own certain issue-handling reputations. The theory identified issues “owned” by the two major political parties and found that candidates would emphasize specific issues they are advantaged of [20]. It has been noted later by researchers that Democrats tend to emphasize “compassion” issues that reflect women’s stereotypical issue strengths like social welfare and education, which makes the Democrat party (regardless of the sex of the candidates) feminine [3, 5]. The Democrats were also viewed as more competent in managing these issues [30]. On the other hand, the Republicans emphasize “tough” issues that reflect men’s stereotypical issue strengths, such as national security and military, which label the Republican party masculine [5, 6]. In this regard, not only are the main two political parties in the United States linked to the gendered topics in political discussion, but the political parties themselves are also gendered at the same time due to their agenda and policy priorities.

In other words, as the political issues become gendered, the parties that “own” the issues are equally linked to the gender stereotypes. Hence, there are scholars who found that U.S. political parties become gendered, in that Republicans are viewed as masculine while Democrats are viewed as feminine. The analysis of data from the American National Election Studies (ANES) surveys in Ref. [5] then revealed the voters’ cognitive schemas of Democrats and Republicans in gender-specific ways. Politicians are also found to define and represent themselves according to the issue ownership labels. For instance, the content analysis of the presidential campaign ads of 1952–2000 in Ref. [31] demonstrated Democrat candidates discussing Democrat-owned issues (education, health care, jobs/labor, poverty, and environment) more as the Republicans discussing Republican-owned issues (national defense, foreign policy, government spending/deficit, taxes, and illegal drugs) more. In this regard, the study hypothesizes:

H2a (issue ownership): When the voters make electoral decisions, the gender cues in the candidates’ political parties will interact with the political topics the candidates show concern with. H2b: Specifically, voters will prefer Democrat candidates when it comes to Democrat-owned issues and prefer Republicans when it comes to Republican-owned issues.

H3a (gendered party): The gender cues of the two main political parties will interact with the voters’ electoral choices on male and female candidates, such that H3b: voters will prefer female candidates when it comes to Democrats and prefer male candidates when it comes to Republicans.

As candidates in elections would involve more than one element of gender cues (political parties and topics), the current project further tests if different categories of gender cues would impact one another. Female candidates in Democrat (feminine political party) can either show concerns with feminine or masculine issues, which may “add up” or “decrease” the strength of gender cues, and this leads to the following hypothesis:

H4a (gendered topics and gendered party): The interaction between the gender cues in political parties and topics will interact with the voters’ preferences of candidates. H4b: Specifically, female Democrats concerning feminine political issues and male Republicans concerning masculine political issues would show the highest likelihood to be voted since the two types of candidates offer gender cues in both political parties and topics.

Simultaneously, not only the sex and gender cues of the candidate would influence the voters’ electoral choices, but also the voters’ own sex. Previous studies pointed out that individuals are more likely to vote for candidates who are similar to themselves to represent them [32]. Female voters are also more likely to have a baseline preference for women candidates with more “gender consciousness” [10, 24, 33, 34, 35]. In the review of female politicians’ public speech in Ref. [36], women politicians see themselves as a “voice for the voiceless.” Reference [37] also highlighted the importance of visibility in representation and how women politicians can be role models for adolescents. Thus, this research hypothesized that:

H5a (candidate sex X participant sex): There will be significant differences between male and female voters in their voting preferences for different candidates. H5b: Specifically, Female voters would prefer female candidates more than male voters.

3. Research methods

3.1 Research methods in existing literature

Several studies have evaluated stereotypes and gender cues in elections through existing data: reference [38] adopted data from the 2006 American National Election Study (ANES) Pilot Study, [39] took regression discontinuity design on data from U.S. House primary elections between 1972 and 2010, and [40] coded data of candidate sex, election outcomes, candidate characteristics for analysis. Other researchers conducted experiments about the relationship between voting behaviors and candidates’ personal traits [3], candidates’ “facial” traits [41], and the attractiveness of appearance [42]. In Ref. [10], a telephone survey about a hypothetical choice between two candidates was conducted. Participants were asked to answer questions, such as “if two equally qualified candidates were running in the [Democratic/Republican] primary for the U.S. House of Representatives, one a man and the other a woman, do you think you would be more inclined to vote for the man or the woman?” However, like many other studies, such approach and survey design would compromise the intention of the research, and participants could make different choices while being “watched” by the researchers. The study in Ref. [24] on individuals’ baseline preference for supporting candidates of a particular sex, the researcher utilized an experiment to demonstrate head-to-head matchups between male and female candidates, which would again compromise the result as the respondents being aware of “surveillance” of the researcher.

In this sense, while making decisions between male and female candidates, participants that originally would vote for male candidates due to gender stereotypes could choose otherwise to avoid being judged as sexist or not being politically correct. According to reference [8], self-report data from explicit questions involving sensitive topics (such as gender stereotypes) can be compromised by the human tendency of positive self-representation. In other words, research bias can be caused by the participants’ social desirability. Researchers then exploited different research methods to avoid bias. Reference [7] did a qualitative review of previous poll questions and pointed out the problems made by leading questions. Reference [43] used an experiment with self-report data about gender stereotypes and applied technologies to record eye movement and see if the participants responded to the questions with their “most honest” answers.

3.2 Research procedure and design

Although the current research did not apply the same eye-movement technology to see if the respondents are showing their “true” preference of political candidates, it started with a series of questions of demographic information to learn about the participants’ previous voting decisions without revealing the researcher’s intention of testing gender cues in the experiment.

After the Institutional Review Board at the University approved the study, participants were recruited through Amazon Mechanical Turk (MTurk). After entering the survey link on a Qualtrics survey voluntarily, the participants were directed to a web page that demonstrated a short introduction to the study. In this introduction, it is stated that this research is designed to understand the relationship between the voters’ likelihood to vote for different candidates and the topics they support or are concerned about. Upon indicating consent, the survey started with demographic information gathering, including age, sex (biology), gender (social identification), race, educational level, employment status, religion, and marital status. Also, to obtain information about how voters make electoral decisions generally, the survey also included a section that asked about the participants’ political ideology (very liberal, liberal, moderate, conservative, very conservative), partisanship (Democrat/lean Democrat, bipartisan/no lean, Republican/lean Republican), the important reasons that influenced their previous (or future) electoral choices (the topics candidates concern with, the candidates’ partisanship, personality, sex, popularity, previous experiences, age, other).

In this research, the participants were randomly given 40 individual stimuli that showed 40 different short candidate descriptions, including name (that specifically revealed the candidates’ gender from an online random name generator), the age of the candidates (40–60), their previous work experiences (such as lawyer, U.S. military, and doctor that are related to the topics they show concern with), and three topics and bills they support selected from the five masculine and five feminine topics. The participants were then requested to choose from a 5-point Likert-type scale survey to express how likely they would vote for the candidate (from 1-least likely to 5-very likely). Thus, the dependent variable was the favorability and likelihood to vote for the candidates shown to the respondents.

As reference [41] noted, the attractiveness of appearance, especially gender-specific attractiveness, plays a significant part in elections. Therefore, to prevent the influence of the candidates’ physical appearance on the respondents’ decisions, the research did not provide photos of the candidates. Instead, the gender cue of the candidate image was replaced by a gender-implicit avatar icon that is often seen as the default image when one signs up for online accounts. Names that could reveal the candidates’ sexual identities were offered: these names were randomly selected from an online character name generator website for writers rather than using the real names of politicians to avoid misleading cues. (See Appendix A for candidate description stimuli example).

Five gendered political issues were equally provided in each category. The feminine and compassion issues include (1) social welfare, (2) education [3], (3) healthcare, (4) family and childcare, and (5) poverty [9]. Masculine and tough issues included (1) national security and military, (2) economy [24], (3) science, (4) crime, and (5) foreign policy [9]. The 40 stimuli were equally distributed into the ten topics. For instance, of the ten female candidates that had the main concern with feminine issues, two of them support social welfare policies, and two of them show concern with education topics. In this regard, the current study came up with a 2 (candidates’ sex: male, female) X 2 (candidates’ party: Democrat, Republican) X 2 (the topics candidates showing concern with: feminine topics, masculine topics) factor statement as the Figure 1 illustrates.

Figure 1.

Research experiment design.

As each category included five hypothetical candidates, all candidates are divided into five groups: (1) one male Democrat candidate concerning feminine topics, (2) one female Democrat candidate concerning feminine topics, (3) one male Republican candidate concerning feminine topics, (4) one female Republican candidate concerning feminine topics, (5) one male Democrat candidate concerning masculine topics, (6) one female Democrat candidate concerning masculine topics, (7) one male Republican candidate concerning masculine topics, and (8) one female Republican candidate concerning masculine topics. To prevent exhausting participants, each participant was randomly assigned to only two groups of candidates.

4. Research result

A total number of 1238 individuals finished the whole survey and experiment section. Out of these participants, 49.51%, or 613 were females, 50.16%, or 621 males, 3 preferred not to reveal their sex, and 1 identified as other. 50.24%, or 622 participants identified themselves as Democrat/lean Democrat, 31.18%, or 386 Republican/lean Republican, 16.40%, or 203 No lean, and 2.18%, or 27 Other.

The descriptive data revealed that participants significantly preferred more for female candidates (M = 3.20, SD = .73) than male candidates (M = 2.89, SD = .78), t(1237) = −17.74, p < .001. They also reported more preference for Democrats (M = 3.09, SD = .88) than Republicans (M = 2.99, SD = .92), t(1237) = 3.07, p < .005. This was not a surprising finding since 50% (N = 622) of the participants identified themselves as Democrat or lean Democrat in the demographic information survey. A multivariate test also unveiled a main effect on the voters’ preference for the candidates of different parties made by the voters’ party recognition, Wilks’ Λ = .70, F(6, 1134) = 36.84, p < .001, partial η² = .16. Simultaneously, the participants generally reported more preference for candidates concern with feminine topics (M = 3.20, SD = .72) than candidates concern with masculine topics (M = 2.89, SD = .78), t(1237) = 17.74, p < .001.

H1a and H1b were both supported as a multivariate analysis demonstrated a significant interaction between the candidates’ sex and the topics they concern with in the candidate description (see Table 1: candidate sex X topic). The participants reported a significantly higher likelihood to vote for female candidates concerning feminine topics (M = 3.13, SE = .04) than female candidates concerning masculine topics (M = 2.98, SE = .04), Wilks’ Λ = .91, F (1, 571) = 56.07, p < .001, partial η² = .09 (see Table 1). They reported significantly more preference for female candidates (M = 3.13, SE = .04) than male candidates (M = 3.01, SE = .04) when the two candidates both showed concern with feminine topics. In the meanwhile, they reported significantly more preference for male candidates (M = 3.06, SE = .04) than female candidates (M = 2.98, SE = .04) when the candidates both showed concern with masculine topics.

Candidate sex × political topics candidates showing concern with.
	Feminine political issues	Masculine political issues
Female Candidates
Mean	3.13aA	2.98aB
SE	.04	.04
Male Candidates
Mean	3.01bA	3-06cB
SE	.04	.04

Table 1.

Interaction between candidate sex and political topics candidates showing concern with.

Wilks’ A = .93, F (1, 571) = 45.28, p < .001, partial η² = .07. Means with no subscript in common differ at p < .05 using Holm’s sequential Bonferroni post hoc comparisons.

The multivariate test revealed another significant interaction between the political party and political topic (see Table 2: candidate party X topic), Wilks’ Λ = .91, F (1, 571) = 56.07, p < .001, partial η² = .09, which supported H2a. In general, the participants reported significantly higher voting likelihood for Democrat candidates (M = 3.21, SE = .04) than Republicans (M = 3.11, SE = .04) while they both showed concern for feminine topics. Among the candidates showing concern with masculine topics, the participants reported significantly more preference for Democrat candidates (M = 3.03, SE = .04) than Republicans (M = 3.09, SE = .04). Among Republican candidates, the participants reported significantly higher voting likelihood for concerning with feminine topics (M = 3.11, SE = .04) than the candidates concerning with masculine issues (M = 3.09, SE = .04). Therefore, H2b was rejected.

Candidate party affiliation × political topics candidates showing concern with.
	Feminine political issues	Masculine political issues
Democrat
Mean	3-21aA	3.03bA
SE	.04	.04
Republican
Mean	3-11aB	3.09bC
SE	.04	.04

Table 2.

Interaction between candidate party affiliation and political topics candidates showing concern with.

Wilks’ A = .91, F (1, 571) = 56.07, p < .001, partial η² = .09. Means with no subscript in common differ at p < .05 using Holm’s sequential Bonferroni post hoc comparisons.

The test also supported H3a by laying out a main effect on the interaction between the candidates’ party affiliation and the candidates’ sex (see Table 3: candidate sex X party), Wilks’ Λ = .95, F (1, 571) = 30.6, p < .001, partial η² = .05. Among both male and female candidates, the participants showed a significantly higher preference for Democrats (female: M = 3.25, SE = .04; male: M = 3.10, SE = .03) than Republicans (female: M = 2.89, SE = .03; male: M = 2.95, SE = .03). They showed higher likelihood to vote for female Democrats (M = 3.25, SE = .04) than male Democrats (M = 3.10, SE = .03) as well as for male Republicans (M = 2.95, SE = .03) more than Republican females (M = 2.89, SE = .03), which supported H3b.

Candidate sex × candidate party affiliation
	Female candidates	Male candidates
Democrat
Mean	3.25aA	3.10aB
SE	.04	.04
Republican
Mean	2.89bA	2.95bB
SE	.04	.04

Table 3.

Interaction between candidate sex and party affiliation.

Wilks’ Λ = .95, F (1, 571) = 30.6, p < .001, partial η² = .05. Means with no subscript in common differ at p < .05 using Holm’s sequential Bonferroni post hoc comparisons.

In the descriptive data in Table 4, participants reported the highest scores in likelihood to vote for female Democrat candidates concerning feminine topics (M = 3.42, SD = 1.10). When both the party-affiliation Democrat and the political topics both offered feminine gender cues, the participants reported a significantly higher likelihood to vote for female candidates (M = 3.42, SD = 1.10) than male candidates (M = 2.96, SD = 1.02), t(1237) = 14.30, p < .001. Nevertheless, the participants’ preference for male Republicans concerning masculine political issues does not come out with the same tendency; rather, the candidates that include three masculine gender cues at the same time in their description reported rather low scores in the likelihood of being voted (M = 2.80, SD = 1.10). While both the political party (Republican) and the topics offered masculine gender cues in the candidates’ description, the participants reported a significantly higher likelihood to vote for female candidates (M = 3.22, SD = 1.09) than male candidates (M = 2.80, SD = 1.10), t(1237) = 14.38, p < .001. In the meantime, with further analysis through a multivariate test, the study found no main effect on the interaction between the candidates’ party affiliation, the topics they concern with, and the candidates’ sex (Candidate Party X Topic X Candidate Sex), Wilks’ Λ = .96, F (1, 571) = 24.62, p < .001, partial η² = .04, which supported H4a.

Descriptive data of candidates
	Feminine political issues		Masculine political issues
	Male candidates	Female candidates	Male candidates	Female candidates
Democrat
Mean	2.96	3.42	3.02	2.96
SD	1.02	1.10	1.03	1.02
Republican
Mean	2.76	3.19	2.80	3.22
SD	1.10	1.08	1.10	1.09

Table 4.

Descriptive data of the participants’ voting preference for candidates.

To test H5a and H5b, a multivariate analysis of variance (MANOVA) on the voters’ sex and the voters’ likelihood to vote for each type of candidate was conducted. The analysis revealed significant differences between male and female voters in some specific cases: Female participants (M = 3.62, SE = .04) showed significantly higher rates for Democrat female candidates concerning feminine issues than male participants (M = 3.23, SE = .04), F (3, 1234) = 13.96, p < .001, partial η² = .03. Male participants (M = 2.90, SE = .04), on the other hand, showed higher rates for Republican male candidates concerning feminine issues than female (M = 2.61, SE = .04), F (3, 1234) = 7.80, p < .001, partial η² = .02. They also reported higher rates (M = 3.04, SE = .04) rates for Democrat male candidates concerning feminine issues than female (M = 2.89, SE = .04) as well as more preferences for Republican male candidates concerning masculine issues (M = 2.98, SE = .04) than female participants (M = 2.62, SE = .04), F (3, 1234) = 11.67, p < .001, partial η² = .03. In other cases, notwithstanding, there were no significant differences between the voting preferences of male and female participants. Therefore, H5a was partially supported. However, in general, female participants reported a significantly higher likelihood to vote for female candidates (M = 3.03, SE = .04) than male candidates (M = 2.93, SE = .04), Wilks’ Λ = .96, F (1, 569) = 21.56, p < .001, partial η2 = .04, which supported H5b.

5. Discussion

This study utilized an experiment to investigate how gender stereotypes intersect with political parties and political issues and influence U.S. voters’ choices between different political candidates. Instead of asking the participants explicit questions and putting male and female candidates into head-to-head comparisons, the experiment that randomly assigned hypothetical candidates to participants tested the gender stereotypes cognitively attached to their implicit attitude toward each candidate. While many existing studies have discussed gender stereotypes in politics (see [3, 25]) and the representation of females in the electoral context (see [24, 32, 33]), this research provides a nuanced examination of the impact of gender stereotypes on the individuals’ electoral choices.

As the research design purposefully provided only very limited candidate information that contained different types of gender cues, the results disclosed that participants did rely heavily on cognitive shortcuts and referred to the gendered characteristics while making decisions in low-information situations. The research findings unveiled that individuals’ voting preferences can be influenced by how they cognitively associate certain political topics with gender stereotypes. Consistent with existing literature (for example, see [23, 24, 26]) on how political topics are gendered, the experiment results confirmed that voters would prefer female candidates when it comes to feminine issues and prefer male candidates when it comes to masculine issues. The study results also confirmed the argument in Ref. [5, 6] on how the two main political parties in the U.S. are linked to stereotypical male and female characteristics. Viewing the experiment results from the viewpoint of gender schema theory (GST) [14], the implicit association between the political topics and the candidates’ sex then indicates the public’s stereotypical perceptions regarding what males and females are more capable of. Behind the association, there is also a categorical thought about how males and females should act or perform themselves.

Nevertheless, the participants did not consider the political issues examined in the study specifically owned by the two political parties in the exact same way previous studies found. The participants reported a higher likelihood to vote for Democrat candidates when it comes to masculine issues. They also reported a higher preference for Republican candidates that showed concerns with feminine topics rather than masculine topics. Indeed, more than two decades have passed since reference [20] introduced the concept of “issue ownership” of political parties. Not only how the voters view each political party can constantly change, but how the political parties prioritize their agenda can also vary. While gender stereotypes were found to be attached to certain political topics and political parties in this research, the issue-ownership of political parties hypothesized by the study was not supported. These findings, furthermore, suggest that researchers need to re-examine the interaction between political topics, the candidates’ party affiliation, and the candidates’ sex.

In the meantime, there were significant differences between male and female participants in several cases. Female voters, in general, reported significantly more preference for female candidates over male candidates. The study results were then consistent with the female baseline preferences for female candidates that existing literature (see [24, 33, 34]) discovered. This then added to the literature finding female voters identifying with female candidates with more “gender consciousness” [10, 35].

Results on the gender stereotypes attached to the candidates’ sex supported the study’s hypothesis and demonstrated society’s consolidated perception of how individuals (including politicians) would (and should) act or be more capable of certain things. Viewing this result from the social constructionist theory [44] that argues individuals act in specific ways according to their adaptation to the socially constructed concepts (like gender), this research further highlights the fact that one does not only passively follow the social norms but also contributes to the same social norms. When individuals become aware of the socially constructed gender stereotypes they take for granted, they can examine their actions and decisions more consciously and further change the long-fixed gendered perception.

As with all studies, the current research has its limitations. Making electoral decisions is a complicated process, and there are other potential factors affecting voters’ choices that were not analyzed in the experiment and survey, such as other demographic backgrounds (e.g., racial identities, ethnic identities, and geographic areas of residency), the voters’ previous electoral decisions, and the topics that voters consider important. Future research can, thus, include more variables for further analysis of the candidate description’s influence on voters’ electoral preferences.

As the current research referred to the existing literature, the political topics studied were limited to the five feminine issues—healthcare (see [24, 27]), social welfare, education, poverty, childcare, poverty (see [3])—and five masculine issues—national security and military, economy, science, crime, and foreign policy (see [5, 6]). As society and the public’s concerns change over time, new political issues can be further created (such as topics related to climate change). This then calls for future research to explore new political topics that have not been studied in a gendered sense. The experiment also put political topics into two main categories (masculine and feminine political topics) in the experiment design, it is unclear whether individual topics are gendered at different levels. It will take further studies to investigate how much individual topics are associated with gendered concepts by U.S. voters. For instance, researchers can apply implicit attitude tests (IAT) to explore whether particular keywords link political topics to gender stereotypes, as the method has been utilized to measure stereotypes and prejudices in different social contexts (see [45, 46, 47]).

Simultaneously, there are more topics discussed in the electoral context that are not associated with gender stereotypes or deemed as masculine or feminine issues, such as environmental and climate issues. While environmental issues like renewable energy and water pollution may be associated with (or even be owned by) certain gendered political parties, the issues themselves may not be gendered at the same time. Future studies can design experiments to examine each topic individually and include the “gender-neutral” category. There are also some issues that can researchers can approach from different perspectives. For instance, while discussing unemployment rates, the candidates can address the topic from a social welfare perspective, which is often related to the feminine feature of care. They can also discuss the issue through an economic aspect, and the association with the economy can thus make it categorized as a masculine/male issue as existing literature (see [6]) suggested. It will require further studies that use different research methods to take the same political topics into account.

6. Conclusion

The experiment in the current study revealed how gender stereotypes in political parties and political issues interact with U.S. voters’ choices between different political candidates. The results confirmed gender stereotypes are utilized as cognitive shortcuts that individuals adopt when making electoral decisions. The political topics studied are found to be gendered, such that the participants preferred female candidates when it comes to feminine topics and male candidates for masculine topics. While the study showed the interaction between gender stereotypes and the two political parties in the U.S., the participants did not consider the topics owned by the two political parties as existing literature found. Further examination of how “issue ownership” of political parties and the gender stereotypes embedded have changed over time is then required. Consistent with previous findings on female voters’ baseline preference, the female participants demonstrated a significantly higher preference for female candidates compared to their male counterparts. Since the current research only included political topics discussed by existing literature, the author calls for further examination of more political topics, including the ones that might be considered “gender neutral,” and whether they are considered owned by particular political parties. Different research methods (both qualitative and quantitative) are also required to explore the details of each political topic as well as how gender stereotypes are used as cognitive shortcuts in different cases.

A. Experiment examples

See Figures A1 and A2.

Figure A1.

Experiment example: female Republican candidate showing concern with health issues.

Figure A2.

Experiment example: male Democrat candidate showing concern with health issues.