A majority of people interviewed this month in Washington, D.C. agree that gender will not influence their decision in the 2020 election, saying a person’s policies are what’s most important.
However, many said they believe others would vote for a male candidate because of perceived stereotypes of women as too emotional, not fit for the job and overbearing.
Richard Duncan, 61, who lives overseas with his wife but still votes in the presidential election by absentee ballot, said gender stereotypes are due to what he called cultural bias against women. He described it as “unfortunate” and “silly” for men to vote for only men in elections, but he sees hope for female candidates moving forward.
“It’s changed now with more and more women in executive (positions),” Duncan said, adding later, “It’s a start.”
Others interviewed said men may be nervous about female leadership in the United States.
Stef Woods, a professor at American University, 46, who teaches American Studies, said that stereotypes have come from “history but also societal context,” and “what identities people have seen as leaders,” influences voters.
Kathleen Dolan, a professor at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, wrote in her 2014 book “When Does Gender Matter? Women Candidates and Gender Stereotypes in American Elections”, that the public draws from negative assumptions made from a women’s attitude, characteristics and abilities.
However she wrote that while “these attitudes may have been present,” they “were not determinative,” adding that “they were not necessarily responsible for the fate of women candidates.”
Steward Beckham, 24, said the only way for things to change is for white people to hold other white people accountable because they won’t listen to minorities and women.
Beckham, 24, believes “white men need to speak out against other white men,” in order for gender stereotypes to end.
Often times when a person is voting they will have “implicit attitudes” about a candidate whether it is based on their personality, physical features, race or gender, said Brady Tuttle, an American University student.
Tuttle, 21, said the Trump administration has helped push “sexist” notions against women and those running for public office. She said that some Americans had that idea implicitly but the current administration has helped people to state their beliefs explicitly.
Cecilia Hyunjung Mo, assistant professor of political science at the University of California at Berkeley, wrote in Political Behavior, that people who already have a preference for male candidates do not care about information that makes a candidate stand out even if the female candidate is more qualified. However, people who implicitly prefer male candidates but say they vote equally between genders tend to select candidates who are more qualified.
Jerri Husch, 67, an adjunct professorial lecturer of sociology at American University, said she does “vote for the best candidate” and that “gender doesn’t matter” to her. She believes people should stop playing identity politics and that “you can’t assume” that men prefer to vote for other male candidates.
Others agreed with Husch and said that while gender is something they consider when voting it is not the deciding factor for them.
Jacqueline Martinez, 19, a STEP assistant at the Center for Diversity and Inclusion, said about the upcoming Democratic primary that while it would be great for someone like Kamala Harris to become the candidate as she would be the “first female black president”, “there are also a lot of things I don’t agree with her so I’ll probably vote for someone else.”
When asked about what should Americans do to eliminate biases attached to women candidates, Rose Strass, 19, thinks that we should “educate people and have people focus more on platforms.”
