Ain't She a Woman? How Warmth and Competence Stereotypes about Women and Female Politicians Contribute to the Warmth and Competence Traits Ascribed to Individual Female Politicians

Abstract

Hillary Clinton was the first woman nominated for President by a major political party in the United States. Like most women in politics, she faced negative evaluations, in part, due to the inconsistency between the traits typically associated with leaders (competence) versus women (warmth). Because understanding the categorization of an individual female politician is essential to the development of successful bias interventions, we examined the extent to which Hillary Clinton and a novel female politician were categorized as women versus female politicians. In three studies we investigated how the warmth and competence stereotypes associated with women and female politicians contributed to the warmth and competence traits associated with Hillary Clinton and a novel female political candidate. Consistent with a subtyping account, the warmth and competence stereotypes associated with female politicians, but not women, predicted Hillary Clinton's warmth and competence traits (Studies 1–3). However, consistent with a subgrouping account, the warmth and competence stereotypes associated with both women and female politicians predicted a novel female politician's warmth and competence traits (Study 3). Implications for bias reduction interventions are discussed.