Gender Stereotypes and Women’s Representation

Abstract The first chapter identifies the central puzzles motivating this book: Theories of descriptive representation suggest that having more women in political office should change how people engage in politics and how individuals view political institutions. Past scholarship suggests that women’s inclusion in politics should increase citizen-level political engagement (Dolan 2006), but this research often finds mixed results for the democratizing effects of women’s political inclusion in institutions (Wolak 2020b; Castorena 2022). Previous research often does not consider the causal mechanisms between women’s increased descriptive representation and increased political engagement. The assumption is that people will see more women in politics, and this will lead people to see politics as more inclusive. This introductory chapter argues that a key missing link to the process is whether women’s increased descriptive representation leads to a change in the gender stereotypic lens through which citizens view politics and government.