Let’s Talk About Sexism: The Differential Effects of Gender Discrimination on Liberal and Conservative Women’s Political Engagement

As the 2016 election season and the Me Too movement have powerfully demonstrated, sexism is a pervasive force not just in American politics but also, more generally, in women’s everyday lives. While political scientists have focused on the impact of sexism on voters’ evaluations of female candidates and their electoral chances, we know little about the effect of personally experienced sexism on American women’s political engagement. This manuscript tries to address this gap. Using data from the 2016 ANES Pilot Study as well as a survey experiment, I demonstrate that women who have experienced gender discrimination report higher levels of political participation and a higher chance of voting in the general election. However, among conservative women, personal experience with sexism is not associated with this participatory impetus. These findings have implications for the equal representation of women from both ends of the ideological spectrum.