Abstract
Public airing of incidents of sexual harassment have moved abuse from the shadows to the light, spurring mass response in the form of #MeToo and “Time’s Up.” While sexual harassment holds negative valence, election outcomes suggest that not all voters punish leaders accused of harassment. We argue there is systematic variation in how voters respond to candidates accused of harassment because evaluations are made within the context of both partisanship and the gendered issue of sexual harassment. As a result, we expect to find distinct responses across four voter groups—Democratic women and men, and Republican women and men on the specific issue of harassment. We present supporting evidence from two survey experiments and a third associational study to show that Democratic women are most likely to electorally punish sexual harassers. Experimental evidence also shows that Republican men are least likely to electorally punish candidates accused of harassment.
Highlights
The spate of revelations of sexual harassment by candidates for political office in recent years raises new questions about the extent to which these accounts influence voters
We expect that Democratic women and Republican men will take clear opposing views when evaluating candidates accused of harassment while the effect of sexual harassment allegations will be less obvious for Democratic men and Republican women
While existing research shows men and masculinity associated with the Republican party; and women and femininity associated with the Democratic party (Bauer, 2019; Box-Steffensmeier et al, 2004; Hayes, 2011; Kaufman & Petrocik, 1999; Winter, 2010), our study expands on the gendered dimensions of partisanship
Summary
The spate of revelations of sexual harassment by candidates for political office in recent years raises new questions about the extent to which these accounts influence voters. Election outcomes have shown that voters are sometimes willing to elect politicians who have been accused of sexual harassment.. In dealing with an issue that highlights the unequal power relationship between men and women, partisanship is not the only factor to influence support of a candidate who has been accused of sexual harassment. While targets of sexual harassment can be of any gender, victims are usually female and perpetrators are usually male (Cortina & Berdahl, 2008) Cognizant of these realities, it is reasonable to expect women voters to judge candidates for office more negatively on the basis of gendered issues like sexual harassment, compared to male voters (Herrnson et al, 2003; Paolino, 1995). The “treatment” of a sexual harassment allegation is received differently by partisan-gender groups and we expect these four groups to occupy distinct positions in the evaluation of candidates. As we will discuss below, voter sorting into partisan groups can be seen in the distinct differences between how Democrats and Republicans each think about traditional gender norms
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