Mothers on the Ballot: Gender and Partisan Dynamics in the Evaluation of Maternal Political Candidates

Abstract

While scholarly research on the interaction between gender and political candidacy has grown, there is limited research on the way mothers are perceived in politics when they choose to run for office. The goal of the paper is to answer the following research question: how do partisanship and gender influences public perceptions of mothers running for political office, and to what extent does social desirability shape these attitudes? Through a list experiment, I surveyed individuals in the United States to capture the beliefs of the public toward mothers running for political office. Specifically, I analyze the opinions of survey participants toward mothers running for office, the party which the mothers run for (Republican or Democratic), and the level of office that they run for (federal or local). I also analyze how the survey respondent’s party affiliation and gender affect their perspectives on mothers running for office. The findings revealed that, without the social desirability bias, almost one-third of participants demonstrated feelings of anger or being upset toward mothers running for office. However, a much smaller number of participants revealed such feelings when they were asked directly. This main finding suggests the presence of bias toward mothers in political careers and the importance of attempting to capture honest public sentiment through surveys for accuracy purposes.