Public support for "more" women in Congress

Is political knowledge about the actual level of women's representation still related to support for women's descriptive representation? Using data from the 2018 CCES, I find that knowledge of the level of women's presence in Congress is related to support for women's representat...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Politics, groups & identities groups & identities, 2021-05, Vol.9 (3), p.646-656
Main Author: Sanbonmatsu, Kira
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
gender
Political knowledge
race
women in Congress
women of color
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Summary:Is political knowledge about the actual level of women's representation still related to support for women's descriptive representation? Using data from the 2018 CCES, I find that knowledge of the level of women's presence in Congress is related to support for women's representation. Consistent with findings from prior research, those who overestimate the percentage of women in Congress are less supportive of electing "more" women whereas those who underestimate the percentage of women are more supportive. Importantly, support for electing more women is not the same as electing more women of color to Congress: the public is slightly less supportive of electing more "women of color" than more "women," indicating that at least some voters are sensitive to question wording and that support for women's descriptive representation is conditional on race.
ISSN:2156-5503
2156-5511
DOI:10.1080/21565503.2020.1724162