Study: Republican Men See Women Political Leaders As Less Competent & With Lower Integrity

Study: Republican Men See Women Political Leaders As Less Competent & With Lower Integrity

NPR reports on a new study analyzing data about Americans' attitudes toward their House of Representatives  members from 2010 through 2014. Ideally, the analysis would be more current, because the presidential election both confirmed and negated some of these conclusions. 

Mia Costa and Brian Schaffner, political scientists from the U of Mass, Amherst concluded that women tend to think "more highly of female legislators on a variety of measures", regardless of party. Republican men express serious reservations about the women representing them, whereas Democratic men often rate women higher than men in governing. 

The research isn't broken down by education, and I would argue here that high-school educated women tend to be more traditional in their beliefs that men should govern. These attitudes have been explored in depth post presidential election, like PRRI/Atlantic analysis and direct interviews with a large sampling of Trump voters. 

In studying members of the House, and not the Senate, the research results are also impacted by districts that are seriously gerrymandered and representing rigid attitudes among both parties, and also racial attitudes. Within these caveats, Costa and Schaffner concluded:

"While Democratic men evaluate women legislators more favorably, the opposite is true for Republican men," the researchers write. "Republican men are the one group who provide lower evaluations of female elected officials."

Redtracker | TIME Remembers 50,000 People In New York City Demanding Women's Equality

Women's News Headlines August 26, 2016

Second-wave feminism flexed its mighty muscle on Aug. 26, 1970, as 50,000 women marched down New York City’s Fifth Avenue. Joined by a coterie of men and anti-war protesters, the marchers were celebrating the 50th anniversary of the 19th Amendment, giving American women the vote. They were also demanding changes to the policies that affected women's lives: childcare and abortion policies, education and employment opportunities. Many women abandoned their usual duties for the day, joining with spiritual sisters across the country staging sit-ins and takeovers of all-male bars.

One year to the day after the Women’s Strike for Equality March, Congress passed a resolution designating Aug. 26 as Women’s Equality Day, and 45 years later, the day continues to be a moment to reflect on exactly what has been achieves in the arena of women's rights. 

With no Equal Rights Amendment in place for American women, and with the latest research from PEW affirming that over 70% of Republican men and 40% of Democrats believing that sexism is dead in America, older women are challenging younger ones to get real about deep refusal among American men to give women more rights. Particularly precarious for women are the Personhood bills littering state legislatures: Republican-sponsored laws that equates the rights of women with those of a fertilized embryo. 

Related:  AOC Channels the History of America's Equal Rights Amendment

More Headlines

France's top administrative court overturns burkini ban @ The Washington Post

Nate Parker's Alleged Sins Won't Keep Me From Seeing 'The Birth of a  Nation' @ The Daily Beast

The Hacking of Leslie Jones Exposes Misogynoir at Its Worst @ The Daily Beast

Read On: Women's News Headlines August 26. 2016

UN Delegation Visits Alabama, Texas & Oregon, Leaves 'Appalled' At Gender Inequality In America

UN Delegation Visits Alabama, Texas & Oregon, Leaves 'Appalled' At Gender Inequality In America

American Women Have No Idea How Far Behind We Are Our Pursuit of Gender Equality and Women's Rights

The lack of awareness among American women about our falling status made the greatest impression on the UN experts. "So many people really believe that U.S. women are way better off with respect to rights than any woman in the world," Raday said.

Interviewed about her 2011 book 'Flipside', Phyllis Schlafly, who led the crusade to derail the Equal Rights Amendment by tapping into conservative fears about liberating women with equal rights, said:

It is self evident that American women are the most fortunate women who ever lived and enjoy more freedoms and opportunities than are available in any other country. Armed with the right attitude, they have every opportunity for happiness and achievement. Women should stop feeling they are victims of the patriarchy, reject feminist myths, and follow the roadmap to success and happiness spelled out in ‘Flipside.’

In reality, US women have sunk to 28th place in the world, sandwiched between Mozambique and Cuba, in the latest 2015 World Economic Forum Global Gender Gap Report. In the area of political empowerment, America ranks a pathetic 72 in the world, with extensive research confirming that the reason we are an even worse 81 on women in parliament -- our Congress -- (as opposed to women in managerial government position) is that we refuse to believe that women can legislate as effectively as men.