When Senator Elizabeth Warren was asked whether she believed that the men in the 2020 presidential race have a better chance of beating Trump solely because of their gender, she answered, “I believe they may think so, but they’d be wrong. […] What the data show now is that in competitive elections, women are out-performing men.”
The question and Senator Warren’s answer reflects a paradox regarding the effects of candidate sex on voter evaluation: A variety of research shows that women are as likely as men to win, and yet there is ample evidence that voters hold attitudes that disadvantage female candidates. How can both of these things be true at the same time?
We argue that this paradox can be explained once we consider differences in candidate quality. CONT.
Sarah Fulton & Kostanca Dhima (Texas A&M), Political Behavior
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