{"id":269150,"date":"2020-09-18T06:43:25","date_gmt":"2020-09-18T10:43:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/?p=269150"},"modified":"2020-09-18T06:43:25","modified_gmt":"2020-09-18T10:43:25","slug":"how-race-and-gender-affect-who-looks-like-a-winner","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/2020\/09\/18\/how-race-and-gender-affect-who-looks-like-a-winner\/","title":{"rendered":"How race and gender affect who looks like a winner"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"<\/a>
Although female and non-white candidates win American elections at the same rates as white men, Democrats persistently doubted that the country would elect a woman president or a person of colour. (File photo<\/a>: Kamala Harris\/Facebook<\/a>)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

When Americans go to the polls on Nov. 3, they will either re-elect President Donald Trump or vote in the Democratic nominee, former vice-president Joe Biden.<\/p>\n

Throughout the Democratic presidential primary, Biden supporters argued that he would be especially competitive against Trump because of his race and gender<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, Democratic primary voters\u2019 focus on \u201celectability\u201d<\/a> posed challenges<\/a> for the female and Black contenders<\/a> for the Democratic nomination.<\/p>\n

Although female and non-white candidates win American elections at the same rates as white men<\/a>, Democrats persistently doubted that the country would elect a woman president<\/a> or a person of colour<\/a>.<\/p>\n

In a new article<\/a> in the journal Perspectives on Politics<\/em><\/a>, I call this type of reasoning \u201cstrategic discrimination.\u201d Even when people are themselves<\/em> willing to support diverse candidates, they may hesitate to do so because they fear others<\/em> are biased against those candidates.<\/p>\n

Of course party leaders and primary voters select candidates based on policy positions and qualifications. But they also need to find candidates who can win a general election. So party insiders try to anticipate which candidates will be most electable<\/a>. In other words, who looks like a winner?<\/p>\n

In my large experiment, I find that electability is a biased metric. Americans see white male candidates as more electable than equally qualified Black women, white women and to a lesser extent, Black men. The results are strongly intersectional<\/a>, with Black women considered significantly less competitive than otherwise identical white women and Black men.<\/p>\n

Are white men really a safer bet?<\/h2>\n

When party members are selecting candidates, they may gravitate toward white men because they feel like a safer bet, as opposed to taking a risk on a woman, a person of colour or especially a woman of colour.<\/p>\n

But these judgments are based on misperceptions of others\u2019 beliefs. In my research, I find that Americans\u2019 estimates of other Americans\u2019 levels of racism and sexism are three or four times too high.<\/p>\n

In one of my studies<\/a>, a nationally representative sample of Americans believed nearly half of their fellow citizens would not be willing to vote for a qualified woman for president, and believed more than 40 per cent would not be willing to vote for a qualified Black candidate \u2014 this despite the fact that Barack Obama was twice elected president, and Hillary Clinton won the popular vote in 2016.<\/p>\n

Polling<\/a> from the Angus Reid Institute suggests that compared to Americans, Canadians are more optimistic<\/a> about their country\u2019s willingness to elect diverse leaders.<\/p>\n

Nonetheless, strategic discrimination happens in Canada too. In the Canadian context, strategic discrimination is most likely during party leadership elections.<\/p>\n

Wynne addressed her sexuality<\/h2>\n

Perhaps the most notable Canadian example comes from Kathleen Wynne\u2019s 2013 quest to lead the Ontario Liberal Party. Wynne faced internal party concerns<\/a> that Ontario residents would be unwilling to elect a gay premier.<\/p>\n

The issue was so significant that Wynne spent fully a fifth of a major convention speech<\/a> addressing it. \u201cI want to put something on the table,\u201d she told<\/a> the convention delegates:<\/p>\n

\u201cIs Ontario ready for a gay premier? You\u2019ve heard that question. You\u2019ve all heard that question. But let\u2019s say what it really means: can a gay woman win? That\u2019s what it means. So, not surprisingly, I have an answer to that question. When I ran in 2003, I was told that the people of North Toronto and the people of Thorncliffe Park weren\u2019t ready for a gay woman. Well, apparently they were. \u2026 I do not believe that the people of Ontario judge their leaders on the basis of race, sexual orientation, color, or religion. I don\u2019t believe they hold that prejudice in their hearts.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Wynne\u2019s speech was met with resounding applause. Wynne prevailed in her leadership election, and she led her party to victory in the next general election.<\/p>\n

Convincing other party members<\/h2>\n

Nonetheless, strategic discrimination continues to shape Canadian politics.<\/p>\n

When Jagmeet Singh launched his campaign<\/a> for leader of the federal NDP in 2017, he was greeted with a predictable question: But can he win?<\/a><\/p>\n

Some of this skepticism was due to Singh\u2019s lack of federal political experience. But people also doubted whether Canada was ready for a Sikh prime minister, particularly one who wears a turban<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Like Wynne, Singh ultimately won his leadership contest. Yet because of his identity, he had to clear additional hurdles to advance within his party.<\/p>\n

My research shows that in the U.S., race and gender affect who looks like a winner. The experiences of Singh and Wynne suggest that a similar dynamic occurs within Canadian political parties as well.\"The<\/p>\n

Regina Bateson<\/a>, Visiting Professor at the University of Ottawa, Political Science, L\u2019Universit\u00e9 d\u2019Ottawa\/University of Ottawa<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n

This article is republished from The Conversation<\/a> under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

When Americans go to the polls on Nov. 3, they will either re-elect President Donald Trump or vote in the …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":44,"featured_media":265349,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[16,17],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-269150","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-news","category-news-w","mauthors-regina-bateson-luniversite-dottawa-university-of-ottawa","mauthors-the-conversation"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/269150","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/44"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=269150"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/269150\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":269151,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/269150\/revisions\/269151"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/265349"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=269150"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=269150"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=269150"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}