That Woman from Michigan: How Gender Resentment Shapes the Efficacy of Stay-at-Home Policies

Debra Leiter,Nicole Kalaf-Hughes

doi:10.1017/s1743923x20000392

Debra Leiter, Nicole Kalaf-Hughes

Open Access

https://doi.org/10.1017/s1743923x20000392

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Abstract

AbstractThe United States has the highest number of COVID-19 cases, yet many Americans have responded indifferently toward policies designed to combat the spread of the virus. While nearly all 50 states have implemented some type of stay-at-home policy to encourage social distancing, there has been high variation in the degree of compliance. We argue that this variance is partly driven by gender resentment. Gender resentment reduces trust in female political leaders and thus decreases compliance with government policy and recommendations. Using data from SafeGraph and the 2016 American National Election Study, we demonstrate that the effect of stay-at-home policies on social distancing is reduced when gender resentment increases in states with female leaders. However, when gender resentment is low, there is no difference in the effect of policies on behavior. This research has important implications for understanding unseen barriers that can mediate the efficacy of female political leaders.

Highlights

The United States has the highest number of COVID-19 cases, yet many Americans have responded indifferently toward policies designed to combat the spread of the virus
We examine whether gender resentment affects response to state-level social distancing orders using an ordinary least squares specification, with state and day random effects
The effect of gender resentment is linear, and results suggest that while the orders from female state health directors are more effective at the lowest levels of gender resentment, their orders become less effective as gender resentment increases

Summary

Debra Leiter

The United States has the highest number of COVID-19 cases, yet many Americans have responded indifferently toward policies designed to combat the spread of the virus. While most 50 states have implemented some type of stay-at-home policy to encourage social distancing, there has been high variation in the degree of compliance. We argue that this variance is partly driven by gender resentment. Using data from SafeGraph and the 2016 American National Election Study, we demonstrate that the effect of stay-at-home policies on social distancing is reduced when gender resentment increases in states with female leaders. It is only when resentment leads to distrust and political animus that we expect compliance to decline for female leaders

DATA AND METHODS

RESULTS

CONCLUSION