The link between gender and political orientation: why female politicians continue to remain underrepresented

After a short break from posting and sorting out some university stuff, I am back online and will continue posting more fire soon. Enjoy.

Politics globally, regardless of sovereignty and international influence of governments and the political leaning of politicians, continues to remain a primarily male dominated field and one that is not without its stereotypes amongst voters. There tends to be a misconception that the typical characteristics of female politicians are similar to those of stereotypical females in general (Scneider, M.C and Bos, A, 2014). In spite of this, this is rarely the case with females perhaps entering politics with their main intention being perhaps to go against female stereotypes and further encourage women to enter a field which continues to have a workforce consisting largely of males.

The stereotypes associated with males generally relate to their strength, virility and perhaps lack of sensitivity with greater assertion and more likely use defence and force to protect themselves and their influence. This would likely result in them potentially being more likely associated with aiming to gain authority and submit to positions of power. These contrast starkly with those associated with women who are more likely to have greater empathy, compassion, and sensitivity to others needs. What the genders perhaps both have in common, according to Schneider and Bos, is that they would likely have clear values which they would remain faithful (although women may be perhaps more diplomatic and willing to compromise if the situation requires this). While these all appear to be characteristics that would, in different ways, prove important in developing competence in political leadership, which of these traits that would appear more attractive to voters would vary and it could lead to them developing preferences of genders when deciding which candidates to elect. This can come from not only misogyny and chauvinist views amongst males in society considering women as not being strong enough to fulfil these roles, but also the views that females may be a lot more desirable in engaging in political activity or as candidates for governance of specific positions on the political spectrum.

  This map clearly shows mainly left wing political orientation (with the unclassified leaders i.e. New Zealand, Iceland                   and others also leaning more to the left) amongst the female political leaders globally (maps made using https://www.arcgis.com/index.html

Furthermore, there is the common view that women are more likely to support more socialist environmentalist and liberal political ideas (see above) and so less likely to advocate right wing, authoritarian and totalitarian ideology than men. This may reflect why there have been significantly more authoritarian regimes led by men than by women, and the stereotypes associated with both genders might reflect these perceptions. This conclusion is supported by Allison Wu in his analysis of the subject in that he considers women as appearing more environmentally informed and more conscientious about implementing environmentally friendly decisions into their policymaking, this being considered mainly for humanitarian reasons and as a result of growing concerns for sustainability of social and economic practises rather than for capitalist reasons as might more likely be observed for male politicians in support of green agenda. He also proved that women in positions of power had a significant negative impact on the state's net carbon dioxide emissions and that carbon dioxide emissions in general appeared to have been reduced in these governments compared to governments led by men thus proving to further evidence this point. Considering that green agenda (although only in recent years having  appeared a significant priority for policymaking internationally) is a significant vote winner for female politicians and could perhaps increase their representation and presence in global politics. However, this may be limited in that is mainly considered important by a more select demographic (mainly females and younger generations).

Moreover, as can be observed in the map above, the highest percentages of women in parliament appear to be in countries that are either highly developed with more progressive left wing governments or those that are less developed but comparatively socially stable with low levels of corruption whose governments support similar ideas. These governments are primarily constitutional monarchies. This would, therefore, present that the levels of political corruption of the governments of these nations, their  ideology and values, and their main demographic observed within society to prove to be the primary influences on the political representation of female politicians in parliament. This also explains why they appear to in a lot of cases remain largely underrepresented.

Bullough, A et al, 2012. Women's political leadership participation around the world: An institutional analysis. Published in The Leadership Quarterly 23 (2012) pp. 398–411 DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.leaqua.2011.09.010

Ferreira, F and Gyourko, J, 2014. Does gender matter for political leadership? The case of U.S. mayors. Published in Journal of Public Economics 112 (2014) pp. 24–39 DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jpubeco.2014.01.006

O'Brien, D.Z, 2019. Female leaders and citizens' perceptions of political parties https://doi.org/10.1080/17457289.2019.1669612

Paris, L.D, 2009. Preferred leadership prototypes of male and female leaders in 27 countries Published in Journal of International Business Studies (2009) 40 DOI:  www.jibs.net

Schneider, M.C and Bos, A, 2014. Measuring Stereotypes of Female Politicians. Published in Political Psychology, Vol. 35, No. 2, 2014 DOI:  10.1111/pops.12040

Wu, A, 2023. Do female political leaders make the environment greener? Evidence from the United States https://www.emerald.com/insight/0368-492X.htm