November 14, 2016/ 12:30 PM

Presentation by Professor Yoshikuni Ono, University of Wisconsin-Madison

Voters often have stereotyped views toward men and women in politics. Women, for instance, are frequently typecast as being more liberal and having less leadership qualities than men. In order to survive electoral competition, therefore, female candidates may need to avoid conforming to their gender stereotypic image. Yet, we know little about whether and to what extent female candidates are rewarded or punished when they deviate from their gender stereotypic image. Using a conjoint survey experiment in Japan, we show that female candidates are disadvantaged compared to male candidates; furthermore, they could suffer around a 5-percentage point penalty when their policy expertise diverges from gender stereotypes. Our results imply that female candidates face a difficult dilemma because avoiding such negative sanctions by playing their gender role may result in producing a potential for further gender-based prejudice against themselves.
 
About the Speaker

Yoshikuni Ono is a professor of Political Science at Tohoku University in Sendai, Japan. He completed his Ph.D. in political science at the University of Michigan. He is currently a visiting scholar at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. His research focuses on the comparative study of political parties, legislative politics, and electoral behavior. Current research projects include studies on the effect of gender stereotypes on voter evaluation of candidates running for electoral office and the effect of foreign threats on parliamentary speeches in Japan. His work has appeared in American Journal of Political Science and Japanese Journal of Political Science.

Cost : Free and open to the public!

Download file: 11.14-ONO-jc-ksp.pdf

Sponsor(s): Terasaki Center for Japanese Studies