Not just women for women: How gendered affinities affect candidate support

Despite gains in women’s political representation, many studies continue to identify structural and attitudinal barriers that contribute to their persistent under-representation in elected office. One commonly cited explanation is a baseline reluctance among some voters to support female candidates. However, research on gender affinity suggests a more complex picture: voters often prefer candidates who resemble themselves, and especially women are more likely to support women. This identity-driven dynamic stands in contrast to a generalized bias against women and raises important questions about how gender identity, beyond binary gender, shapes voter behavior. To address these questions, we use a conjoint experiment to test whether gender affinity influences candidate preferences and how it is moderated by gender identity. Our findings reveal a consistent gender affinity effect with women respondents preferring women candidates, and men preferring men candidates. These patterns are stronger among individuals with more pronounced gender identities, that is, hyper-masculinity and hyper-femininity. Our study makes two contributions. First, by incorporating measures of gender identity, we move beyond a binary conception of gender to provide a more nuanced account of gender affinity. Second, our approach allows us to move beyond the traditional focus on affinity between women voters and women candidates to also consider how gender identity shapes political preferences among men.