Degree
Bachelor of Arts (B.A.); Bachelor of Science (B.S.)
Major(s)
Political Science; Psychology
Document Type
Immediate Open Access
Abstract
The 2018 and 2020 elections saw large gains in women running for political office and winning. In general, there is an upward trend of more women being elected to political office, regardless of party. Yet, there still seem to be disparities between Democratic and Republican women. This raises an important question: Are women in the GOP disadvantaged when they run for office, and does this disadvantage come from Republican attitudes? More specifically, are there differences between Republican men and women in how they view female GOP candidates? I analyzed a unique survey of 500 registered Republicans before and after the 2018 election. Overall, attitudes are positive across the two election waves, but with interesting variation between men and women in acknowledging whether women face unique challenges when they run for office. The findings suggest that there is an obvious mismatch between what Republican voters express and what their voting behavior is, which may be due to the limited number of women running as Republicans, at least compared to Democrats.
DOI
https://doi.org/10.54718/RRLT3571
Date Defended
4-1-2021
Thesis Director
Merivaki, Thessalia
Second Committee Member
Shrup, Brian
Third Committee Member
Elder, Anastasia
Recommended Citation
Swan, Georgiana, "Is it Harder to Run for Office As a Republican Woman? Attitudes Among Republican Voters Towards Women Candidates" (2021). Honors Theses. 122.
https://scholarsjunction.msstate.edu/honorstheses/122
