Publication Title

European Journal of Politics and Gender

Document Type

Article

Publication Date

3-23-2026

Subjects

Women candidates -- United States, Role congruence, Feminism, Gender stereotypes

Rights

Copyright (c) 2026 The Authors

Creative Commons License

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

Abstract

Studies in social psychology and political science have noted the negative impact of the “double bind” facing women leaders and candidates, which suggests that women must demonstrate both masculine and feminine attributes in order to achieve the same success as men can achieve by demonstrating only masculine attributes. Less attention has focused on how feminist identity conditions these evaluations. We focus on whether individuals’ evaluations of men and women are affected by (1) the gendered attributes associated with a candidate and (2) feminist identity. Using data from an original survey experiment in the US, we investigate the relationship between respondents’ feminist self-identification and their evaluation of a candidate’s electability. We find that respondents who identify as feminists evaluate women, feminine, and role-incongruent men candidates more positively than non-feminists. Our results suggest that feminism can neutralize some aspects of role incongruity and provide a potential boost to non-traditional leadership candidates.

DOI

10.1332/25151088Y2026D000000136

Persistent Identifier

https://archives.pdx.edu/ds/psu/44574

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