Research shows that female politicians made more rigorous decisions than men

Research shows that female politicians made more rigorous decisions than men

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When female political candidates deviate from expectations or views of their party, their voters have a much more stringent decision than men, it reveals a new research. Politics and gender.

Research has also found that voters launch campaigns with more uncertainty about female candidates than men, which causes women to examine the candidates more than when they form their opinion.

Artificial experience behind the results

These results came from the Congress campaign and a computer -based computer experience. Researchers asked participants – 1,700 adult Americans to learn about ordinary election candidates, evaluate them, and “vote” for their choice. Researchers differently did the voter’s candidate was a man or woman in his party, and whether they were associated with some of the “faults” designed to keep the participants away from the party’s candidate.

In this experiment, the participants were introduced to the Congress office – two fake candidates – a Democrat and a Republican -. The candidate in the party was presented as a man or a woman. The gender was delivered through names (James/Jamie Anderson for Republicans and Patrick/Patricia Martin for Democrats), conscience and photos.

The out party candidate always appeared as a moderate white man. Information about the policies of the two candidates and how closely they are associated with their party’s views, researchers offered participants basic settlement and background information about candidates, including details of their family, a positive newspaper editorial, their work experience, political experience, political experience and a social philosophy.

In these terms where the candidate’s policies were associated with his party, and where the scandal was just a fault of the candidates, the scandals usually played the least role. Look at the party’s candidate who did not significantly reduce his diagnosis by laughing at his party candidate, laughing at the displaced person, or a copy of the US constitution, regardless of whether he is a man or a woman. Only the “embezzlement” scandal declined significantly, but they were almost the same for both sex candidates.

When policy positions were contradictory with expectations, however, there were more surprising differences. For example, men were allowed to deviate from their policy stance without any penalties, but the 11 -point reduction in the priority of the female candidate who did this was equal to the lack of any candidate when it was associated with the policy but was involved in the extremely strict “embezzlement” scandal.

Men start the head

Dr. Tessa Duttoono, Associate Professor in Gender and Politics at Durham University, explained the prejudices that clarify this uneven play.

“Men, who are still the majority of office -bearers in the United States, take advantage of such a default assumption that they will be expected, based on predictions.”

“On the contrary, female candidates can expect an active campaign between an election campaign that begins uncertainly that women candidates are essential to good representatives of the party. Voters are open to learning it, but need to be confirmed before they are convinced.

“Women candidates will have to work hard to provide the necessary information to the voters so that even the participants can be assured that they should align well with the party platform. Without reinforcing the information, voters are uncertain about the skeptical and female candidates, and are also ready to test their powers.”

‘Tipping Point’ and other results revealed

Researchers got a “tipping point” on which supporters – people who expect to prioritize the position and personal qualities of their party candidates. This tipping point arrives when the amount or nature of negative information about the candidate in the party increases to a great extent that discriminatory voters begin to disconnect.

“The challenge is that the characteristic of any kind of candidate, which removes from expectations, should look like a particular party candidate, pushes people closer to making this switch,” said Duttoon. “And this tipping point is more fast when female politicians join it, as they are kept for tight and high quality, while further examination is also done.”

Voters also expect women candidates to follow their party platforms, while men give more to “going to go unnoticed”. For men, deviating from the party’s specific position, it can be considered a bold leadership, while for women it is considered a sign of unfaithfulness.

Likewise, the women’s office holders in the US Congress are more strictly evaluated on their party line votes than their male colleagues. It seems that women wanting the selected office are expected to be the team players instead of the innovators.

More information:
Gender risks of violation of expectations and the importance of information for female candidates, Politics and gender (2025) DOI: 10.1017/s1743923x25100159

Provided by Cambridge University Press

Reference: Female politicians decide more strictly than men, search for research (2025, July 22) on July 23, 2025, https://phys.org/news/2025-07-07-omen-politesions- Harshly-Men.html.

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