Gender and Clientelism: Do Expectations of Patronage Penalize Women Candidates in Legislative Elections?

Abstract

How does the salience of clientelism in politics impact voter support for women legislative candidates? Existing research finds little bias against women legislative candidates in survey experiments. Where bias exists, it is due to “role congruity,” where voters penalize women because of a perceived lack of specific traits or issue preferences suitable for the position. Building on existing work, I theorize that the ability to deliver patronage is a “role” voters might find stereotypically incongruous with women. Using two waves of a nationally representative survey in Vietnam, I generate preregistered predictions about the impact of a clientelism prime on bias against women legislative candidates. I then test the prediction, with results showing that when clientelism is primed, bias against women candidates increases. These results provide evidence that clientelism has gendered effects on political representation. It also theorizes an additional “role” that could penalize women at the polls.