An Experimental Approach on the Impact of the Gender Dimension in Local Elections

Gender stereotypes, shaped by cultural values and personal beliefs, impact the way women are perceived in personal and professional settings. Nevertheless, the literature only recently started analyzing the impact of stereotypes on voting preferences for political seats, with a literature gap existing in the context of local rural elections. By providing two different groups of respondents with the same candidate CV, controlling only the name and picture of the person, this study analyzes the impact of gender on how candidates are perceived in terms of traits and competence. Results indicate that internal, unconscious biases lead to stereotypically feminine traits being attributed to female candidates while male candidates are viewed through more masculine stereotypes. These perceptions then influence the level of competence attributed to each candidate. In the long term it can impact the extent to which public policies take into account the gender dimension, leading to women issues in society not being addressed.