Competent and influential: how do voters evaluate women prime ministers?

While women have increased their political representation in recent decades, they remain under-represented as party leaders and prime ministers relative to their representation as rank-and-file members of parliament. We seek to explain whether women are excluded from these higher positions of political power, particularly prime ministerial positions, due to voter evaluations of women leaders. To answer this question, we use an original survey experiment across six Western democracies to explore whether voters apply gendered stereotypes to their evaluations of prime ministers. We explore the degree to which voters view women prime ministers as competent in forming governing coalitions and influential over policy outcomes that governments pursue. In general, we find that voters do not view women party leaders as less competent or less influential leaders when compared to similarly positioned men. Our research suggests that voter evaluations may represent less of a potential barrier for women in attaining political leadership positions.