A Double Standard: Gender roles following a political sex scandal
INTRODUCTION:
While the number of females in positions of power and leadership continues to rise in the United States, perceptions of females as nurturing, warm and caring have been slower to change.[1] The stereotypical traits assigned to women perpetuate the “double bind” for women in leadership. Specifically, women in leadership who are assertive and aggressive are criticized for being dominant and opinionated, while women in leadership who assert more “feminine” characteristics are not taken as seriously (Monopoli 2006). Male leaders, on the other hand, do not have this problem because assertive and aggressive male leaders are synonymous with strong leaders (Chin 2006).
Simply put, there are personality traits and situations that are more acceptable for males than for females. This paper seeks to apply the double bind framework in an examination of how public perceptions differ when a male versus female elected official is caught in a sex scandal. This paper asks: How does the gender of the politician and the type of sex scandal affect the public’s perception of an elected official? I expect that, overall, female elected officials caught in a sex scandal will be viewed more negatively than males in the same situations. However, I also anticipate that these perceptions will vary based on the type of sex scandal in question. Female politicians who engage in more physically aggressive sexual conduct will be perceived more negatively than female politicians whose sex scandal is less physical, while the opposite will be true for male politicians caught in specific types of sex scandals.
I attempt to answer this question using a survey experiment in which respondents read one of four articles (conditions) about a congressman involved in a sex scandal, where the gender of the politician and type of sex scandal were manipulated. I find that male politicians are viewed more negatively by both male and female respondents, regardless of the sexual scandal in which they are involved. The results of this survey also show that having sex in office is more favorable than sexting for both male and female politicians. Lastly, it appears that female respondents view both politicians more negatively regardless of the scandal.
In what follows I explain the effect of gender on the public opinion of a politician following a sex scandal in order to determine whether or not women are held to a different standard, if there are certain sexual acts that are “gender specific” and considered to be more acceptable when they are done by one gender over the other, and finally to see whether or not female respondents, in general, have different responses to these scandals than male respondents. I then delve into the explanation of the experiment and how I received and organized the responses from the subjects as well as explain my findings. Each branch of the question regarding perceptions by gender is important when trying to protect one’s public opinion following a scandal. In addition, these are important questions to ask in order to better understand if the two sexes are being perceived and judged equally by the general public.
THEORY DEVELOPMENT
The public has a tendency to assume certain characteristics and traits based solely on gender. For example, one experiment revealed that when the gender of a candidate for political office has been explicitly stated, the public tends to assign other characteristics that are typically associated with that specific gender (Huddy and Terkildsen 1993:128). What is more, “the association of women with emotion and men with reason dates back to ancient Greek philosophy” (Monopoli 2006). This is particularly troubling given that the public associates certain traits as more or less desirable for individuals in elected office, and that it is the “feminine” traits that are less desirable (Chin 2006). Moreover, studies have shown that women leaders are evaluated differently and less favorably than men even when “performing the same leadership behaviors” (Eagly 1987). It has been found that “perceived incongruity between women and leadership roles pose obstacles to leadership and result in double binds” due to gender stereotypes (Chin 2011). Thus, in general, female politicians find themselves in a double bind wherein they are judged more harshly whether they exhibit feminine or masculine characteristics.
In the context of a scandal, therefore, female politicians will likely face harsher criticism than a male counterpart for at least two reasons. First, females are judged differently and more harshly than males following a scandal because females are considered to be more honest and trustworthy. A scandal is a breach of trust, and is therefore more shocking to the public when it comes from a female (Smith 2005). Additionally, females are perceived to be “warm”, and this trait is does not fare as well following a political scandal as does competence, which is generally considered a male characteristic (Funk 1996:12). Thus, the warm, honest, and trustworthy characteristics that are stereotypically female lead to harsher judgments for females involved in a scandal because they are challenging feminine traits. Males, on the other hand, are considered to be more cold, calculating, and self-serving, so scandals in no way challenge the stereotype, but in fact support it, which makes the public expect it and accept it.
In addition to general personality traits and social constructions of feminine and masculine traits, another reason to expect females to be judged more harshly, especially after a sex scandal, is a double standard when it comes to acceptable sexual behavior. “Sexual double standards in heterosexual relational schema set up expectations that sexual activity occurs within the context of a committed relationship for women and in all types of relationships for men” (McLellan-Lemal et al 2013:9). In other words, females are not judged by the same standards as their male counterparts. What is deemed common or acceptable sexual conduct for men is not acceptable for a woman simply because of gender stereotypes. One example is that female politicians involved in extramarital affairs are judged more harshly than male public officials in the same situation (Maule and Goidel 2000:74).[2] This suggests that public opinion following a scandal is largely affected by the gender of the politician involved. The combination of stereotypical female traits and the double standard that exists between acceptable male and female sexual conduct leads to the first hypothesis: female politicians involved in sex scandals will be perceived less favorably by the general public than will their male counterparts.
Although, overall, I expect that females will be judged more harshly than males following an alleged sex scandal, I expect the type of the sex scandal in which they are involved to moderate this relationship. There is a difference between sexting, for example, and having sexual intercourse with multiple partners. The former is more expected and socially acceptable for women, while the latter is more expected and socially acceptable for men. There are two reasons for this, both influenced by pop culture and media. Jewel and Brown (2013) suggest that women are taught by the media to believe that men are interested in them for their bodies. Perhaps for this reason, women are more likely to be the senders, and men the recipients of nude photos (Gordon-Messer et al 2012: 301). Thus, certain sexual exploits are more common and acceptable for women, and the non-physical, more passive act of sending a nude photo is more acceptable for a woman, often viewed as a sex object, than the more physical and promiscuous act of having multiple sexual partners.[3]
Just the opposite is true for men. While modern pop-culture tends to portray women as sex objects, men are portrayed as sex-focused. From the sexualization of women in the music industry to the glorification of the Victoria’s Secret fashion show, it can be seen that women are more often seen as sexual objects than men. Specifically, men are stereotypically interested in women as sexual conquests (Jewel and Brown 2013: 596). A study of young men finds that non-relationship sex is more prevalent than relationship sex and attributes these findings to men being “detached from emotions, unconcerned with relationships, and in pursuit of sexual conquests” (Barrios and Lundquist 2012: 287). Therefore, I arrive at my second hypothesis: male and female politicians involved in a sex scandal typical of their gender will be perceived more favorably than politicians involved in a scandal atypical of their gender where women are more commonly associated with sexting and men are more commonly associated with having multiple sexual partners.
Beyond perceptions differing among respondents based on gender of the politician and type of scandal in which a politician is involved, I also anticipate male and female respondents to react differently to the scandals overall. First, women may be more conservative, in general, when it comes to issues of sexuality because of the underlying sense of feminine morality. Women tend to judge politicians involved in various scandals harder than men do (Bhatti, Hansen and Olsen 2013:421) and women are more likely than men to call for the politician to resign following a scandal (Maule and Goidel 2000:73). This evidence suggests that women have stronger negative feelings towards scandals or immoral behavior than men do.
In addition, it may be the case that men are more accepting of scandalous sexual behavior for two reasons. First, they do not view “hooking up” and sexual promiscuity as negatively was women do because men are less emotionally involved with sexual activities than women (Barrios and Lundquist 2012: 287). Similarly, in regards to “friends with benefits” situations, men judge these scenarios significantly more positive than do women (Weaver et al 2013:156), which further suggests a gender gap between perceptions. In other words, men are simply more nonchalant about non-committed sexual activity than females are.
Because men view sexual relationships as more laissez fare, they may engage in these acts more often. If they engage in the acts themselves, it would be hypocritical to judge others who engage in illicit sex acts. Therefore, men can more easily identify with the person in the sex scandal, regardless of whether the person committing that act is male or female. One study found that men consistently over-estimate how comfortable a woman is during a sexual act, even when the woman reports feeling uncomfortable (Reiber and Garcia 2010:396). This indicates that men do not have negative feelings about their own sexual relationships, nor do they believe that the partner has negative feelings either. Thus, males are more accepting of casual sexual relationships, and therefore engage in them with the understanding that it is appropriate for themselves and their partners. In order for men to condemn others for their sexual behavior, they would also have to look at themselves and their activities in the same way. Thus, I hypothesize that the more conservative nature of women coupled with the way males view sexual behavior and relate to other males leads to the belief that females are more likely to have negative perceptions of the politician regardless of the politician’s gender or the type of scandal.
RESEARCH DESIGN
To discover the relationship between gender and public perceptions following a publicized sex scandal we conducted a survey experiment. In lieu of a lab experiment which would have constrained our sample population to only college students, we chose to expand our experiment to more individuals through an online survey. Recognizing the monetary limitations, we designed our experiment using the online survey software, Qualtrics, to ensure that questions could be answered easily, anonymously and in a random order, and that experimental conditions could be randomly assigned. The survey included general pre-experiment questions followed by the manipulated scenario and ending with post-experiment questions. We sent our survey URL to approximately 4,000 people by means of Facebook and Email and received responses from 385 individuals. Emails were sent to professors and students at Texas Christian University while posting the link to Facebook allowed us to reach out to a wider range of age groups and demographics from all across the country to increase the diversity of our subject pool. Although reaching out to our social networks is not an example of a random sample, respondents were randomly assigned to treatment and control groups which allows us to assume that questions about random sampling become irrelevant and our experimental design allows us to maintain internal validity.
Within our survey experiment we used a 2x2 factorial between-subjects design. Upon clicking the link, subjects were randomly assigned to one of the four possible scenarios or the control scenario, which were each presented in the form of a news article (for the exact wording of the five articles, refer to Appendix A). Each article begins with announcing that an anonymous whistleblower from within a congressman’s office has leaked information about a sex scandal occurring within the office on Capitol Hill. We manipulate both the gender of the congressman and the sex scandal in which they are involved. In two of the possible conditions, the congressman was being accused of sleeping with his interns, with the gender of the congressman being manipulated. In the next two possible conditions, the congressman was being accused of sending nude photos or “sexting” from within the office, also with the gender of the congressman being manipulated between conditions. In sum, the four conditions were as follows: a congressman sleeping with his interns, a congresswoman sleeping with her interns, a congressman sending nude photos and a congresswoman sending nude photos. For the control condition of this experiment we produced a fake story about a congressman being present at a congressional meeting for the first time after recovering from surgery. Random assignment of articles was supplemented by each article having the same probability of being assigned to each respondent.