Gender, germs, and governors: political masculinities and leadership in the US during the COVID-19 pandemic

Abstract

This article describes how the concept of political masculinities helps explain public responses to US governors’ COVID-19 policies. We draw upon governors’ approval ratings, using a paired comparison of similar states with male and female governors, illustrating these findings with examples of citizens’ opinions on governors’ performance from local newspapers and social media. While the approval ratings data suggest citizens made few gender-based distinctions when appraising their governors’ performance, our media analysis shows citizens used gendered language to describe their governors’ leadership skills, evaluating governors during COVID-19 on stereotypically masculine traits. Also, regarding the “male-as-protector” element of normative political masculinity, both the approval ratings and local media data show that citizens held male—but not female—governors responsible for increased COVID-19 rates. These findings suggest that US citizens continued to regard their male and female governors through the lens of traditional (normative) political masculinities during the pandemic’s first year.