Different Offices, Different Expectations? The Evidence from a Candidate Choice Experiment

Studies of women's representation among elected officials have traced the “demand-side” mechanisms of selection, that are based on voters’ stereotypes concerning gender, personality traits, or areas of issue competence. Teele et al. (2018) proposed three mechanisms underlying candidate choice which potentially suppress descriptive representation of women: outright hostility (when voters express preferences against female candidates), double standards (when female candidates’ traits are judged differently than the same traits of the male counterparts), and double binds (when desirable candidate’s traits require more investment from women). In this study, we test whether these mechanisms are present at different tiers of government, as we observe significant differences in female representation between local and national politics. In a large candidate choice Conjoint experiment conducted in Poland, we compared the preferences toward candidates for the MPs, local councilors, and mayors. Our preliminary findings suggest that the voters’ valuations of important candidates’ traits are contingent upon the type of office (executive vs legislative) and level of government (local vs national), and can partly explain why there are systematically more women among councilors and MPs than among mayors.