Resilient Aspirants: Women's Candidacies and Election in Times of COVID-19

Abstract

The COVID-19 pandemic has gendered implications for women's time and resources. The use of informal institutions that pose obstacles to women's electoral viability may also be particularly consequential at a time of rapid change, when election dates and procedures are being amended because of health concerns. Together, these dynamics suggest that the COVID-19 pandemic may impact women's electoral participation, support, and viability in meaningful ways. The November 2020 Brazilian municipal elections provide an opportunity to explore this. Employing data from an original survey of eligible individuals and aspirant candidates, we find that the main obstacle to women's representation is not personal political ambition or efforts but women's perceptions of their access to support for their candidacies. In the face of greater challenges, resilient aspirants are choosing to work harder to compensate for potential losses in campaign support and funds.

Informal institutions and gendered candidate selection in Brazilian parties

“…In the wake of several unsuccessful attempts to strengthen gender quota provisions through legislative means, a change in the campaign finance law led to the creation of a public campaign fund, opening an alternative route to effectuate the quota. Soon after the creation of the multi-million-dollar public campaign fund, women legislators filed a successful motion with the higher courts to request that 30% of the funds be reserved for women’s candidacies (Barbieri et al, 2019; Gatto and Thome, 2020).…”

“…3.Given the tumultuous nature of the 2018 elections, it is difficult to isolate the impact of this reform on women’s candidacies and election. As Wylie (2020) and Gatto and Thome (2020) posit, other factors, including the assassination of Municipal Councilwoman Marielle Franco, and the popularity (and subsequent election) of an openly misogynistic candidate Jair Bolsonaro, also likely compelled women to engage with formal politics.…”

Stigmatized Campaign Practices and the Gendered Dynamics of Electoral Viability

“…In recent years, Brazil's first and only woman president was impeached (dos Santos and Jalalzai, 2021) and elections were marked by scandals involving women "phantom candidates"-candidates on paper only, nominated for the purposes of quota compliance (Wylie et al, 2019). As political outsiders, however, women may require more efforts to improve their name recognition, so face-to-face campaigns may be more important for strengthening women's electoral competitiveness than men's (Gatto and Thome, 2020). As such, we expect that: H2a: Voters will evaluate women candidates who engage in internet-based campaigns as less electorally viable than men who engage in internet-based campaigns.…”

Believe in me: Parties’ Strategies During a Pandemic, Evidence from Ecuador

“…Yet, studies focused on how the pandemic affected the nature of political competition remain scarce. 1 Research on elections during this period has focused on electoral processes and outcomes (Gatto and Thome, 2020;Sircar, 2021), rather than the campaign and parties' electoral strategies. Thus, we have yet to understand political parties' treatment of this issue within electoral contests.…”