Abstract
We assess the role of social signals about the appropriateness of women in leadership roles in either the political or religious domain. The relevant literature leads to expectations of a relatively clear effect on women’s efficacy levels when encountering social suggestions that women’s skills are better used in other ways. However, less certain is whether encouraging women away from leadership in religious organizations impacts their sense of effect on political outcomes, including policies in support of disadvantaged outgroups. Utilizing a framing experiment embedded in a statewide public opinion poll, we find that social suggestion that women should stay away from religious leadership has statistically significant and negative effects on efficacy levels among our sample’s subset of evangelical women. At the same time, these anti-religious leadership signals move evangelical women away from supporting policy statements benefitting a disadvantaged outgroup. Given that it is the power of suggestion regarding religious, not political, leadership that leads to the effects among evangelical women, we offer additional paths for future research to explore on this wider topic.
Highlights
The Precarious Position of Women in American PoliticsSocial identity boundaries may explain much of the longevity of traditional role stereotypes women encounter in both religious and political contexts (Tajfel et al 1979; Tajfel 1982)
We assess the role of social signals about the appropriateness of women in leadership roles in either the political or religious domain
The question we consider in this manuscript is the extent to which women are affected in their self-reported sense of political efficacy as a result of the power of suggestion about “appropriate” women’s roles in political and religious settings—the latter having clear overlap with the civic skills and participation interest of the former
Summary
Social identity boundaries may explain much of the longevity of traditional role stereotypes women encounter in both religious and political contexts (Tajfel et al 1979; Tajfel 1982). At issue is self-presentation, as both women and men are susceptible to concerns about how others perceive them (including and especially members of the opposite sex) (Graziano and Bryant 1998) Extending these ramifications to the political and religious realms, gender outgroup expectation signals may be critical in determining one’s sense of efficacy. To the extent that feelings of domain-specific efficacy are determined in grade school, low self-esteem about political matters as driven by signals of ingroup norms in women may explain their generally lower levels of political interest from an early age (Easton and Dennis 1967; Sniderman 1975; Sigel and Hoskin 1981) Supporting this is Conway’s (Conway et al 1996) suggestion that belief among women that men are better able to understand politics (and, by extension, wielding power in groups) partly explains women’s lower political interest. The following section focuses our assessment on these and related questions
Sign-in/Register to view highlights & summary Sign-in/Register to access full text options 
Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Schedule a callDisclaimer: All third-party content on this website/platform is and will remain the property of their respective owners and is provided on "as is" basis without any warranties, express or implied. Use of third-party content does not indicate any affiliation, sponsorship with or endorsement by them. Any references to third-party content is to identify the corresponding services and shall be considered fair use under The CopyrightLaw.
