Was gender really on the ballot? Examining sexism and voting behavior in the U.S. presidential election

Abstract Political observers proposed that gender was on the ballot in the 2024 US presidential election, in ways beyond just the candidates themselves. Ambivalent Sexism research (AS; Glick & Fiske, 2001) spans many domains but there is limited research examining its link to voting behavior in elections. This study aimed to contribute to the paucity of research on this topic by evaluating how ambivalent attitudes toward women and men, and the belief that men experience more discrimination today compared to women, predicted voting behavior in the 2024 U.S. presidential election. We collected 500 responses from a nationally representative sample of U.S. adults one day after the US. presidential election. The results revealed that men and women’s endorsement of some prejudicial gender attitudes, but not others, predicted voting for Trump/Vance or Harris/Walz. This work implies that gender may have been on the ballot in this election.