Nevertheless, Role Models Persisted: Girls Exposed To Women Politicians More Likely To Vote as Adults

Abstract

Do girls exposed to women politicians become more politically engaged adults, as many politicians and scholars predict? To our knowledge, no previous research has examined whether exposure to women politicians in adolescence contributes to a greater likelihood of political participation in adulthood. We employ a panel study that followed more than 6,000 adolescents into adulthood, controlling for a range of individual and contextual variables associated with both turnout and the presence of women candidates. We find that adolescent girls who were exposed to a woman running a viable campaign for a visible office in 2002 were more likely to vote in both presidential and non-presidential elections as adults than those who did not experience any such women candidates. The effect is concentrated among women who grew up in less political households; absent political socialization in the family, the presence of women politicians made a difference. Men’s turnout is unrelated to exposure to women candidates in adolescence.