When gender stereotypes benefit candidates: Evidence from Slovak presidential elections in 2009 and 2019

In 2019, Slovakia elected its first woman president and became an outlier in Central Europe, where politics has traditionally been a male-dominated area. In the past five presidential elections in Slovakia, women candidates have represented only 14.67% of all candidates on average. Only two women have ever made it to the second round – the current president Zuzana Čaputová and Iveta Radičová, who lost to her male opponent in 2009. Why did Čaputová win and Radičová lose? By applying theories from social psychology and communication to the newspapers’ coverage of main presidential candidates, the present study explores the role of gender stereotypes in the elections under different political and social circumstances. In general, the gendered portrayal is to women candidates’ disadvantage in the competitive political arena as women are commonly associated with communal traits perceived as incompatible with leadership. However, in exceptional circumstances, for instance, when social cohesion is threatened, women candidates can knowingly exploit stereotypes to their advantage. Using a combination of quantitative content analysis and thematic analysis of commentaries published in the mainstream Slovak newspapers (N = 1090), I investigate the role of gender stereotypes in the Slovak presidential election in 2009 and 2019. I find that a gender-stereotypical depiction could have helped Čaputová to win the election in 2019. In particular, emphasising her honesty and trustworthiness could have benefited her, as the unprecedented protests following the murder of an investigative journalist created a public demand for a new type of leadership favouring communal traits. However, in 2009 gender stereotypes could have worked against Radičová, as Slovakia was facing the consequences of the global economic crisis, and the economy is perceived as predominantly a male domain.