The Department of Sociology continued its Research Seminar Series with Susan Banducci (University of Exeter)

Title: TWICE AS HARD, HALF AS GOOD: RECONCILING GENDERED VOTING AND WOMEN’S ELECTORAL SUCCESS

Professor Susan Banducci (University of Exeter)
Chair: Vanessa Gash
Date: Wednesday 8th November

Studies conducted in experimental settings suggest that there is still reluctance to vote for women candidates. How can this apparent bias demonstrated in experimental studies be reconciled with the fairly consistent finding that when women choose to run for elected office that they do as well as men. If voter bias is not a phenomenon of the past how are women candidates able to achieve relatively equal levels of success? Recent scholarship argues that gender neutral election outcomes are not necessarily a result of gender neutral election inputs. Instead, fulfilling the adage that women must do twice as well to be thought half as good as men, the self-screening and higher ‘quality’ of female candidates in anticipation of voter discrimination may allow them to achieve equal outcomes even though effort and quality of female candidates should result in higher electoral success. I consider this proposition using comparative data on women’s campaign efforts and media and voter responses to these campaign efforts to examine whether women put in more campaign effort to get similar levels of media coverage and an equal share of votes.

Susan Banducci is Professor and Director of the Q-Step Centre at Exeter University. Her research interests are in the areas of comparative political behaviour, media and political communication.