Downstream Effects of Women’s Descriptive Representation

Abstract Chapter 5 turns to examine how raced-gendered stereotype shifts in political institutions increase individual levels of political engagement and improves evaluations of political institutions. This chapter argues that more feminine political institutions will lead to higher perceptions of institutional trust and legitimacy. Past scholarship finds mixed effects for whether women’s increased representation does, in fact, lead to more positive perceptions of political institutions (Clayton, O’Brien, and Piscopo 2019; Wolak 2020b; Atkeson 2003). A reason for these mixed findings, I argue, is that past work fails to consider this process of institutional stereotype change. If women enter political institutions at increased rates but do not lead voters to see these institutions as less masculine, then it is unlikely that women’s representation will have positive effects on voters. However, if women change stereotypic perceptions of institutions, then it is likely that people will view political institutions more positively, and can increase their own levels of political engagement. These outcomes are tested by drawing on the experimental tests presented in Chapters 3 and 4. The results show that people are more engaged under majority-women city councils, and that people view all majority-women institutions as more trustworthy relative to majority-men institutions.