This study reveals areas of advantage for Asian American women candidates in comparison to white women candidates on various measures of candidate evaluation, something that may stand in contrast to expectations and demonstrates the importance of research that looks at the multiple identities that women candidates bring to elections. At the same time, our findings suggest that white women may have access to a wider range of presentation strategies.

Relatedly, this research demonstrates the importance of testing campaign messages and modes with attentiveness to both gender and race/ethnicity… messages that are especially effective for Asian American women do not function in the same way for white women and vice versa. Too often, both researchers and practitioners make claims about effective strategies for “women” without evaluating these intersectional complexities.

Evaluations of Women Candidates by Race

In evaluations of Asian American women candidates and white women candidates presented without gendered traits (neither masculine, such as tough and aggressive, nor feminine, such as care and trust) mentioned, participants rated Asian American women candidates as:

• More qualified than white women candidates to be presidential contenders, U.S. Senators, U.S. Representatives, founders of social organizations, and Speakers of the House;
• More likely than white women candidates to handle masculine, feminine, and racial issues well;
• More likely than white women candidates to be well-described by both masculine and feminine traits; and
• More liberal than white women candidates.

Additionally, when Asian American and white women candidates were evaluated in this control condition (without gendered traits), participants:

• Expressed greater likelihood of voting for Asian American women candidates than for white women candidates; and
• Asian American women candidates are rated more favorably than white women candidates.

Effects of Gendered Traits on Candidate Evaluations

Across multiple evaluation criteria, gendered traits in campaign messages turned out to benefit white women candidates, but this finding did not hold for Asian Women candidates.

• Likelihood of Voting:
  • Participants were less likely to say that they would vote for Asian American women when those women were presented as having feminine or masculine traits. In contrast, there were no statistically significant differences in participants’ likelihood of voting for white women when they were presented with or without gendered traits.
• Perceived Qualifications:
  • Participants evaluated Asian American women presented with masculine traits as being less qualified to be a U.S. Senator or a founder of a social organization than Asian American presented with no gendered traits. Asian American women presented with feminine traits were evaluated as less qualified to be a presidential contender than Asian American women presented without gendered traits.
  • White women presented with masculine traits were evaluated as more qualified to be a Speaker of the House than white women presented without gendered traits. White women presented with feminine traits were evaluated as more qualified to be a founder of social organizations than white women presented without gendered traits.

• Favorability:
  
  • Asian American women presented with masculine traits were viewed less favorably than Asian American women presented without gendered traits.

Summary

As is evident in the findings, messages that are especially effective for Asian American women do not function in the same way for white women and vice versa. Employing gendered traits in campaign messages is more influential, overall, for white women than Asian American women candidates.

Notes: In the fall of 2022, the authors conducted an online survey experiment to investigate the effect of deploying gendered traits in campaign messages among women candidates. A grant from the Center for American Women & Politics sponsored the survey.