Not all emotions are the same: an intersectional analysis of women’s political action based on emotive responses

If there was ever a time in US history to understand women’s politics, that time is certainly now, as with the increase of women candidates, the rise of women’s political engagement, and women-led social movements, scholars have little intersectional insight into what motivates women’s political participation. Anger and fear are powerful forces in US politics, yet how negative emotions about race matter for women is less understood. Using the 2020 Collaborative Multiracial Postelection Survey, we find that fear about race is associated with engagement in costlier political acts. Women’s anger about race leads to more frequent non-electoral political engagement once accounting for time, money, and civic skills. No one emotion has the same effect on women’s non-electoral political participation. Not all women are similar in their emotional responses to race, which impacts how women look to political systems to address racial issues.