Marzia Oceno

Although a desire for descriptive representation is common among historically underrepresented groups and despite women’s enduring underrepresentation in U.S. government, female voters demonstrate much weaker and less consistent ingroup loyalty at the voting booth compared to other underrepresented groups, such as racial and ethnic minorities. Why don’t women voters generally expect women candidates to provide better substantive representation for their gender group interests? I propose that both women and men in the U.S. electorate are divided into two gender subgroup identities: feminists and non-feminists. Feminists are a homogeneous group and share a gender ideology that focuses on fostering gender equality. In contrast, non-feminists are a very diverse group that includes three distinct gender belief systems: 1) “non-labelers,” who endorse feminist (i.e., egalitarian) gender ideology but refuse the feminist label due to its perceived negative connotations; 2) “gender individualists,” who believe in individualistic rather than collective solutions to gender inequality; and 3) “gender inegalitarians,” who deny the existence of gender inequality and/or oppose any effort to address it. I rely on theoretical insights from political science, psychology, sociology, and women’s and gender studies and deploy both survey and experimental tests using four studies – two nationally representative surveys and two experiments – including both quantitative and qualitative data.

​

My results demonstrate that support for gender equality, which feminists and non-labelers share, is much more widespread than adoption of the feminist label. Self-labeling or being labeled a feminist vs. a non-feminist has important political implications. Among both men and women, feminist identity is largely associated with prioritizing the election of more women to political office, while non-feminist identity strongly undermines support for female candidates, all else equal. In the context of the 2016 U.S. presidential election, a mayoral election, and a legislative primary, I further show that feminist voters in both the Democratic and the Republican Party significantly favor ingroup – feminist – candidates over outgroup – non-feminist – candidates. In contrast, despite their group ideological heterogeneity, non-feminists of both parties consistently favor non-feminist over feminist candidates.

​

In sum, labels related to gender subgroups divide the U.S. public much more than the actual idea of gender equality, particularly the female electorate. The divides among feminists, non-labelers, gender individualists, and gender inegalitarians are distinct from and cut across those based on gender group membership, gender identification, political ideology, and partisanship. They crucially influence how the public perceive and evaluate candidates and policies, interpret the political spectrum, and decide to cast their ballot. Paradoxically, explicit association with the feminist label on the campaign trail puts feminist candidates at a severe electoral disadvantage and is likely to be riskier and costlier than touting a gender egalitarian policy agenda. The label appeals to one rather small gender subgroup – feminists – but alienates a larger and more diverse one – non-feminist voters. Thus, it is the aversive reaction to the label, rather than a rejection of the substance of their campaign platforms and policy agendas, that drives many women away from candidates of their own gender group.