Editing Gender role (section)

=== In political office ===
Even though the number of women running for [[elected office]] in the United States has increased over the last decades, they still only make up 20% of U.S. senators, 19.4% of U.S. congressional representatives and 24% of statewide executives.<ref>{{cite web |title=Current Numbers |quote=This page contains current numbers of women officeholders serving in 2017 with links on the right to basic fact sheets for each level of office. |url=http://www.cawp.rutgers.edu/current-numbers |website=www.cawp.rutgers.edu/current-numbers |publisher=Center for American Women and Politics |access-date=6 February 2017 |date=12 June 2015}}</ref> Additionally, many of these political campaigns appear to focus on the aggressiveness of the female candidate which is often still perceived as a masculine trait.<ref>{{cite journal |author1-link=Leonie Huddy |last1=Huddy |first1=Leonie |last2=Terkildsen |first2=Nayda |title=Gender Stereotypes and the Perception of Male and Female Candidates |journal=[[American Journal of Political Science]] |date=February 1993 |volume=37 |issue=1 |pages=119–147 |doi=10.2307/2111526 |jstor=2111526}}</ref> Therefore, female candidates are running based on gender-opposing stereotypes because that predicts higher likelihood of success than appearing to be a stereotypical woman.{{citation needed|date=March 2023}}

Elections of increasing numbers of women into office serves as a basis for many scholars to claim that voters are not biased towards a candidate's gender. However, it has been shown that female politicians are perceived as only being superior when it comes to handling women's rights and [[poverty]], whereas male politicians are perceived to be better at dealing with [[crime]] and [[foreign affairs]].<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Sanbonmatsu |first1=Kira |title=Stereotypes and Vote Choice |journal=[[American Journal of Political Science]] |date=January 2002 |volume=46 |issue=1 |pages=20–34 |doi=10.2307/3088412 |jstor=3088412}}</ref> That view lines up with the most common gender stereotypes.

It has also been predicted that gender highly matters only for female candidates that have not been politically established. These predictions apply further to established candidates, stating that gender would not be a defining factor for their campaigns or the focal point of media coverage. This has been refuted by multiple scholars, often based on [[Hillary Clinton]]'s multiple campaigns for the office of [[President of the United States]].<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Carroll |first=Susan J. |author-link=Susan J. Carroll |year=2009 |title=Reflections on Gender and Hillary Clinton's Presidential Campaign: The Good, the Bad, and the Misogynistic |journal=Politics & Gender |volume=5 |pages=1–20 |doi=10.1017/s1743923x09000014 |s2cid=143560740 |doi-access=free}}</ref><ref>{{cite journal |last1=Carlin |first1=Diana B. |last2=Winfrey |first2=Kelly L. |title=Have You Come A Long Way, Baby? Hillary Clinton, Sarah Palin, and Sexism in 2008 Campaign Coverage |journal=Communication Studies |date=2009 |volume=60 |issue=4 |pages=326–343 |doi=10.1080/10510970903109904 |s2cid=145107322}}</ref><ref>{{cite journal |last1=McGinley |first1=Ann C. |title=Hillary Clinton, Sarah Palin, and Michelle Obama: Performing Gender, Race, and Class on the Campaign Trail |journal=[[Denver University Law Review]] |date=2009 |volume=86}}</ref>

Additionally, when voters have little information about a female candidate, they are likely to view her as being a stereotypical woman which they often take as a basis for not electing her because they consider typical male qualities as being crucial for someone holding a political office.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Huddy |first1=Leonie |last2=Terkildsen |first2=Nadya |title=The Consequences of Gender Stereotypes for Women Candidates at Different Levels and Types of Office |journal=[[Political Research Quarterly]] |date=1993 |volume=46 |issue=3 |pages=503–525 |doi=10.1177/106591299304600304 |s2cid=144560550}}</ref>