When gender matters on the campaign trail: Stereotype activation and support for female candidates

Increasing numbers of women run for political office with every election cycle. Despite this rise in the number of female candidates on the ballot, women's political underrepresentation persists. Conventional wisdom argues feminine stereotypes pose a perceptual constraint for female candidates. Feminine stereotypes characterize women as nurturing, sensitive, and better suited for communal gender roles rather than leadership roles. However, existing research offers conflicting conclusions about whether feminine stereotypes help, hurt, or have no effect on voter evaluations of female candidates. I reconcile these conflicting findings by developing and testing a model of conditional stereotype reliance.;I find, through multiple experimental tests, voters do not automatically associate female candidates with feminine stereotype; but feminine stereotype activation occurs by linking female candidates to feminine traits, gender roles, or other characteristics reminiscent of feminine stereotypes. When this occurs, voters are more likely to use these concepts to rate female candidates as poorly qualified political contenders. I also show how female candidates can prevent feminine stereotyping. Describing a female candidate as outspoken or decisive can increase a female candidate's electoral prospects. This dissertation illustrates how and when stereotypes matter for female candidates, and in doing so reconciles a theoretical and empirical conflict about the role of feminine stereotypes in vote choice.