Differential effects of female and male candidates on system justification: Can cracks in the glass ceiling foster complacency?

Abstract

Despite women’s increasing representation in elected offices across a range of countries, women remain a minority of elected officials (Inter-Parliamentary Union, 2012). Although greater gender equality in political leadership may be assumed to promote gender equality in other domains, the presence of female candidates might ironically facilitate attitudes associated with legitimizing gender inequality. Using experimental methods, we demonstrate that the presence of a female political candidate, relative to a male political candidate, leads to greater beliefs that the sociopolitical system is just (Experiment 1), greater legitimacy of the gender status hierarchy (Experiment 2), and greater implicit preference for stability (Experiment 3). Ironically, within a context in which women are generally underrepresented as political leaders, the increasing presence of women as political candidates might lead to stronger legitimization of the current sociopolitical system, potentially inhibiting social change.