Political Science, Department of

 

Document Type

Article

Date of this Version

2022

Citation

Political Science Research and Methods (2022) 10: 1–17

doi: 10.1017/psrm.2020.54

Comments

Copyright © 2022, Cambridge University Press. Published on behalf of the European Political Science Association. Used by permission.

Abstract

We argue that a country’s international security context influences individual bias against female leaders and propose three mechanisms: by increasing individual demand for defense, by shaping individual ideo-logical orientations, and by increasing society’s level of militarization. Using survey data of more than 200,000 individuals in 84 countries, we show the more hostile the country’s security environment, the more individuals are likely to agree that men make better political leaders than do women. We also find support for some of our proposed mechanisms and that the effect of security environments is greater for men than women. Our study presents the first cross-national evidence that the country’s international security envi-ronment correlates with bias against women leaders.

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