Citizens’ Ambivalence toward Female Politicians: Why Ambivalence Matters for Gender Equality in a Democracy

Sun Young Park; Young Min Baek

doi:10.1080/1554477X.2019.1583031

Citizens’ Ambivalence toward Female Politicians: Why Ambivalence Matters for Gender Equality in a Democracy

Sun Young Park, Young Min Baek

Department of Communication

Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review

1 Citation (Scopus)

Abstract

This study investigated citizens’ ambivalence toward female politicians and how valenced information about the politician helps them resolve their ambivalence, making them form polarized attitudes toward the candidate. Our study’s participants felt stronger ambivalence toward a female candidate than a male candidate; those feeling stronger ambivalence reported more one-sided thoughts about and more extreme evaluation of the candidate, but only when the candidate was a woman. Citizens were also more easily persuaded by valenced information to resolve their ambivalence about the female candidate. On the basis of our findings, we discuss the politico-psychological process underlying citizens’ ambivalence toward female politicians and how it is related with the gender-equal democracy.

Original language	English
Pages (from-to)	309-329
Number of pages	21
Journal	Journal of Women, Politics and Policy
Volume	40
Issue number	2
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1080/1554477X.2019.1583031
Publication status	Published - 2019 Apr 3

Bibliographical note

Funding Information:
This work was supported by the National Research Foundation of Korea Grant funded by the Korean Government (NRF-2016S1A3A2925033). We appreciate two anonymous reviewers who gave us insightful and productive comments on this work.

Publisher Copyright:
© 2019, © 2019 Taylor & Francis Group, LLC.

All Science Journal Classification (ASJC) codes

Gender Studies
Sociology and Political Science

UN SDGs

This output contributes to the following UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)

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10.1080/1554477X.2019.1583031

Cite this

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abstract = "This study investigated citizens{\textquoteright} ambivalence toward female politicians and how valenced information about the politician helps them resolve their ambivalence, making them form polarized attitudes toward the candidate. Our study{\textquoteright}s participants felt stronger ambivalence toward a female candidate than a male candidate; those feeling stronger ambivalence reported more one-sided thoughts about and more extreme evaluation of the candidate, but only when the candidate was a woman. Citizens were also more easily persuaded by valenced information to resolve their ambivalence about the female candidate. On the basis of our findings, we discuss the politico-psychological process underlying citizens{\textquoteright} ambivalence toward female politicians and how it is related with the gender-equal democracy.",

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Citizens’ Ambivalence toward Female Politicians: Why Ambivalence Matters for Gender Equality in a Democracy

Abstract

Bibliographical note

All Science Journal Classification (ASJC) codes

UN SDGs

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