Only for Some Women: Experimental Evidence on Descriptive Representation and Political Engagement

Abstract Does the presence of women in office or on the ballot lead to increased engagement among women? Empirical support for this relationship has been mixed. Some studies show significant effects on political participation, some find null effects, and others show conditional effects. We contend that mobilizing effects from a descriptive representative may be more likely among women with a higher sense of gender-linked fate and for more intensive activities. We test these arguments using experimental designs, finding that women high in gender-linked fate are more likely to engage in resource intensive activities when represented by a woman rather than by a man. However, shared gender effects wash away in the presence of policy information about the representative; thus, a key mechanism through which descriptive representation has an effect in our work is via perceptions of likely policy responsiveness.