Masculine Republicans and Feminine Democrats: Gender and Americans' Images of the Political Parties Under Polarization

Abstract

Previous scholarship demonstrates that Americans’ images of the political parties have taken on gendered characteristics over the last several decades, associating feminine traits with the Democratic party and masculine traits with the Republican party. Polarization is now at an all-time high, but there is no existing research examining how growing partisan division has affected the public's gendered understandings of the parties. While it is likely that greater polarization has impacted the ways in which individuals map gender onto the parties, scholars debate the exact nature of contemporary polarization and the role of affective versus ideological polarization among the mass public.

This thesis extends previous research using American National Election Studies Time Series data from 2008, 2012, and 2016 to investigate how the public's gendered images of the parties have evolved over time under increasing polarization. In addition to examining how the public maps gendered characteristics onto the parties, I assess the degree to which individuals associate the parties with stereotypically masculine and feminine policy areas. Through this analysis, I examine whether the gendered divergence between the parties in the minds of the public has changed over time in light of growing partisan polarization, as well as what amount of this divergence can be attributed to symbolic gendered traits and what amount attributed to meaningful policy content.

I find that the association of the parties with gendered characteristics remains high, with the public continuing to associate the Democratic party with femininity and the Republican party with masculinity. The proportion of negative gendered traits mapped onto the parties has increased in recent years, particularly among the most politically engaged, suggesting an increase in affective polarization among the public. In contrast, although the public does make connections between the parties and gendered policies, specifically among reasons individuals provide for liking the parties, mentions of gendered policies as reasons to dislike the parties have declined between 2008 and 2016. This finding suggests that while affective polarization appears to be growing, evidence of ideological polarization among the mass public in the gendered policy space is limited. These results have important implications regarding the nature of American partisan polarization, the incentives facing political actors, and the potential for productive policy-making and cooperation between the parties in the contemporary political environment.