Gender stereotypes of voters in patriarchal societies

Legislative recruitment is often depicted as a funnel that winnows a large pool of eligibles to a small set of elected representatives (Loewenberg & Patterson, 1979). An extensive literature on women’s access to political power, drawing primarily from work on Western Democracies, suggests a variety of conditions that lead to the disproportionate “winnowing out” of women at the various stages: as eligibles become aspirants, as parties select candidates among the aspirants and as voters chose representatives among the candidates. This paper focuses on the final stage of the legislative recruitment process, in which voters’ gender stereotypes are seen as an important hurdle creating obstacles for women in politics, thereby also shaping the gender-congruent behaviour of MPs. Gender stereotypes refer to the idea that on the basis of politicians’ sex, voters ascribe particular personality traits, capacities and opinions to politicians (Huddy & Terkildsen, 1993). The aim of this study is to present a comparative study of the prevalence of gender stereotypes in Flanders (the largest region of Belgium) and Turkey. Unlike countries of Western Europe, patriarchal countries such as Turkey have so far been omitted from the literate on gender stereotypes, although they present an intriguing case for comparison as patriarchal practices and understandings are seen as serious hindrances to women’s access to political power. Based on an original online survey experiment, this study provides insights regarding the prevalence of political gender stereotypes in Flanders and Turkey, and elaborate on potential moderating factors (such as religiosity and gender affinity effects).