Replication Data for: Opposition to Women Political Leaders: Gender Bias and Stereotypes of Politicians among Japanese Voters

Women are extremely underrepresented in Japanese political life. One possible reason for this is that voters are biased against women. Compared to American voters, to what extent are Japanese voters opposed to women political leaders? What kinds of stereotypes do they have about women politicians? To answer these questions and probe the external validity of American studies on this topic, we conducted a survey that elicits respondents’ attitudes toward women political leaders. First, our list experiment outcomes revealed that approximately 10% of Japanese, and 20% of the Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) supporters, oppose a woman becoming prime minister. Second, we also identified respondents’ gender stereotypes by asking them directly about their impressions of politicians, which revealed that Japanese voters have strong stereotypes for men and women politicians regarding their policy areas of expertise and personal characteristics. These stereotypes are strongest among men and older voters as well as voters who support the LDP. Our findings have broad implications for the literature on gender and politics beyond the study of Japanese politics.

日本政治生活中女性的代表性严重不足。造成这一现象的潜在原因之一是选民对女性存在偏见。相较于美国选民，日本选民对女性政治领袖的反对程度如何？他们对女性政治家持有何种刻板印象？为解答上述问题并探究美国相关研究在此议题上的外部效度，我们开展了一项调查以获取受访者对女性政治领袖的态度。首先，列表实验（list experiment）结果显示，约10%的日本民众以及20%的自由民主党（Liberal Democratic Party, LDP）支持者反对女性出任首相。其次，我们通过直接询问受访者对政治家的印象，识别出其性别刻板印象，结果表明日本选民在政策专长领域与个人特质层面，对男女政治家均存在鲜明的刻板印象。这类刻板印象在男性选民、年长选民以及自由民主党支持者中表现最为突出。本研究结论对性别与政治领域的学术文献具有广泛启示，其价值超越了日本政治研究范畴。