Glass Ceiling or Glass Elevator: Are Voters Biased in Favor of Women Candidates in California Elections?

Abstract

THE CALIFORNIA Journal of Politics & Policy Volume 3, Issue 1 Glass Ceiling or Glass Elevator: Are Voters Biased in Favor of Women Candidates in California Elections? Ronni Marie Abney University of California, Davis Rolfe Daus Peterson Mercyhurst College Abstract Conventional wisdom suggests voters are biased against women candidates for public office. Reluctance to support female candidates is thought to depress the number of votes women receive, causing them to lose more elections than males. Despite reasons to expect bias against female candidates, it is rarely found in em- pirical analysis. This paper examines circumstances in which voters may be biased in favor of women candidates. Voters in low-information elections may rely on gender to determine their vote. We hypothesize that the dearth of information may cause certain voters to collapse their votes onto women candidates. Thus, women candidates will do better than males in low-information elections. A test of this hy- pothesis, examining election returns for the California State Legislature from 2000 to 2006, finds some support for a positive bias. Keywords: women in politics, primary elections, cues and hueristics, California politics, gender bias, low-information elections www.bepress.com/cjpp