Gender‐Related Attitudes and Beliefs Predict White Women's Views of Candidates in the 2016 United States Presidential Election
Analyses of Social Issues and Public Policy
Published online on February 19, 2018
Abstract
---
- |2
Abstract
White women's general failure to vote for Hillary Clinton in the 2016 United States presidential election (only 43% of White women did so) was largely unexpected. We tested the hypothesis that White women's gender‐related attitudes and beliefs, including their (i) feminist identification, (ii) views of societal gender discrimination, (iii) personal experiences with gender discrimination, and (iv) beliefs about female role models, were related to their levels of support for Hillary Clinton and her opponents (Sanders, Trump). A sample of White women (N = 314; 18–75 years, M = 32.71, SD = 13.37) recruited during June and July of 2016 from MTurk and college campuses completed surveys of their gender‐related attitudes and beliefs, as well as political preferences. Results indicated that women's gender‐related attitudes and beliefs predicted their views of both Clinton and Trump, after accounting for political ideology. For example, feminist identification was positively related to support for Clinton. Additionally, stronger endorsement of the notion that societal gender discrimination persists in the United States predicted both more favorable ratings of Clinton and less favorable ratings of Trump. More frequent personal experiences with discrimination, in contrast, predicted weaker support for Clinton.
- Analyses of Social Issues and Public Policy, EarlyView.