{"id":3203,"date":"2016-11-02T09:39:29","date_gmt":"2016-11-02T13:39:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/feminist\/?p=3203"},"modified":"2016-11-02T10:06:49","modified_gmt":"2016-11-02T14:06:49","slug":"when-women-roar-womens-political-participation-in-the-2016-general-election","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/feminist\/2016\/11\/02\/when-women-roar-womens-political-participation-in-the-2016-general-election\/","title":{"rendered":"When Women Roar: Women’s Political Participation in the 2016 General Election"},"content":{"rendered":"

Girls and women can, for the first time, see a woman on the ballot for President of the United States. This pivotal moment in history is the first time we can analyze the effect a woman at the top of a major U.S. party ticket has on the gender gap in political participation. Historically, men have had higher rates of political participation than women \u2013 especially when you consider visible political acts. Will the 2016 General Election change this trend?\u201d<\/p>\n

It is difficult for social scientists to compare presidential elections from year-to-year. Unique personalities of candidates and different historical contexts introduce a large amount of \u201cnoise\u201d into elections analysis. \u00a0Nevertheless, 2016 is an especially poignant year to ask, \u201cWhat effect does a woman presidential candidate have on the gender gap in political participation?\u201d\u00a0 In advance of the election, I argue there are two ways (one empirical, one theoretical) we can begin thinking about this question.<\/p>\n

Empirically, early data released from the American National Election Study\u2019s (ANES) 2016 Pilot Study<\/a> gives us some early insights into how men\u2019s and women\u2019s political participation may be different in 2016. In January, the ANES collected data from 1,200 respondents using the YouGov panel to gauge political participation and expected voting behavior leading up to the fall General Election. This early-released data shows differences in women and men\u2019s anticipated formal and informal political participation that contrast with 2012 behavior and prior scholarship.<\/p>\n

First, 80% of women in the 2016 ANES Pilot sample expected to vote in November, versus 77% who reported actually voting in November 2012\u2014a 4% increase. We do not see a similar upward trend in expected voting behavior versus actual voting behavior among men. In fact, about 4% fewer<\/em> men were 75-100% sure they would vote in the 2016 general election than actually voted in 2012.\u00a0 Will the gender gap between women\u2019s and men\u2019s voting behavior shrink this November?<\/p>\n

\"matthews-graph-1\"
Source: ANES 2016 Pilot Study. Visualization by Morgan C. Matthews.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

In terms of informal forms of political participation, there continue to be gender differences in campaign volunteerism in which men tend to participate more \u2013 especially in visible and conflict-oriented settings.\u00a0 However, there is a relatively small<\/em> gender gap in visible<\/em> acts of political engagement, such as displaying campaign \u201cswag\u201d and participating in rallies, which had 5- and 3- percentage point gender differences in participation (respectively) at the time of the survey. If confirmed in future post-election surveys, this would deviate from past research<\/a> on similar measures<\/a>. Notably, the early-released empirical data from ANES only gives us a preliminary, non-representative view into the shifting gender gap in political participation.<\/p>\n

\"Source:
Source: ANES 2016 Pilot Study. Visualization by Morgan C. Matthews.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Considering what kinds of social mechanisms might shape changes in political participation, we have to step beyond the numbers a bit. For instance, consider the popular #imwithher campaign. In February, the #imwithher video<\/a> posted by Lena Dunham featured 17 celebrity women openly supporting Hillary Clinton\u2019s run for president. From Katy Perry\u2019s performances at campaign rallies to Abby Wambach stumping for Hillary at college democrats\u2019 events around the country, Clinton has received a groundswell of public endorsements from high-profile women.<\/p>\n

We know<\/a> that visible members of our pop culture in our reference groups can influence political behavior. In a gender salient context<\/em>, such as the 2016 general election, visibility of celebrated women in pop culture engaging in politics may have a significant influence on women\u2019s political engagement in particular.\u00a0 Perhaps, in other words, it is not just seeing a woman on the ballot that could shape levels of political participation and anticipated political behavior on election day.\u00a0 Maybe seeing public political statements by high profile celebrity women and other celebrated women in our society is shaping increases in women\u2019s participation this election as well.<\/p>\n

Whatever the results of the November 8th<\/sup> election, early indicators suggest that this may be a paramount year for reducing the gender gap in political participation. \u00a0Political participation not only shapes election outcomes, but also the substantive representation of people in the policy-making process. When more women vote, their collective voice is louder\u2014even when their voices are divided and shouting in different directions.\u00a0 Whatever happens this November, the data suggests that this election season, women voters are channeling Katy Perry\u2019s anthem, \u201cYou\u2019re gonna hear me roar.\u201d<\/p>\n

___________________________<\/p>\n

\"matthews\"<\/p>\n

Morgan C. Matthews<\/strong> is a PhD student in the Sociology Department at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.\u00a0 Her research focuses on gender, political participation and representation, and the intersection of work, family, and civic voluntarism.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Girls and women can, for the first time, see a woman on the ballot for President of the United States. This pivotal moment in history is the first time we can analyze the effect a woman at the top of a major U.S. party ticket has on the gender gap in political participation. Historically, men […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1958,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[30335,55,35058,37960,175],"tags":[36391],"class_list":["post-3203","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-feminist-sociology","category-gender","category-in-the-news","category-quantitative-research","category-sociology","tag-donald-trump"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/feminist\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3203","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/feminist\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/feminist\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/feminist\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1958"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/feminist\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3203"}],"version-history":[{"count":10,"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/feminist\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3203\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3216,"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/feminist\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3203\/revisions\/3216"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/feminist\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3203"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/feminist\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3203"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/feminist\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3203"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}