MARK SETZLER HIGH POINT UNIVERSITY Religion and Attitudes towards Female Political Leaders in Latin America

The central research question How much and where does religion explain individual-level attitudes towards female political leadership in Latin America?

Why study how religion shapes attitudes towards women political leaders in LA? Research on gender stereotyping, female candidacies and electoral success, and voting for women in the US Religiosity has been connected to various political preferences in Latin America (e.g., attitudes towards democracy, voting and civic participation, and attitudes on various social policy issues) But it doesn’t always matter where and how we think it should (e.g., support for laisses-faire economic policies, attitudes towards equal political rights & obligations for men/women) And sometimes religion has seemingly opposing effects, depending on the country in question: ideological voting and support for undemocratic regimes

3 perspectives on the relationship between religiosity and support for female leadership Traditional role gender types are pervasive among religious people in many devout regions, so more religious people, in general, should be less supportive of female leadership Some denominations are less supportive and fostering of gender equity than others. Cross-national research and qualitative work suggests Catholicism is more patriarchal, but research on the US indicates that evangelical Protestantism is more problematic The effects of individual-level religious differences may depend on the macro-religious environment: Secularism may lead to church leaders to retrenchment and then moderation; Pluralism may increase female leadership opportunities among competing churches

Data and Measurement: Key Variables All data from the 2012 AmericasBarometer, which asked: What is your religion? How often to you attend religious services? How important is religion in your life? “Some say that in general, men are better political leaders than women.” Agree/Disagree Various controls included, including SES, gender, and indicators for ideology and other sources of traditional values

Key variables Latin AmericaMexicoBrazilChileUruguay Religious Attendance Never21.4%18.6%19.6%39.5%70.9% 1-2 Times yearly14.6%14.2%15.5%21.5%9.9% 1-2 Times monthly19.5%20.7%19.4% 6.0% Once weekly26.5%34.6%21.8%12.3%7.4% More than once weekly17.5%11.9%23.8%7.3%5.8% Importance of Religion Not at all5.8%6.0%4.7%9.6%37.9% Not very11.0%16.1%7.9%16.7%14.9% Rather28.3%37.2%24.0%35.7%24.1% Very55.0%40.7%63.5%38.1%23.2% Religious denomination Catholic69.7%81.1%60.7%66.3%33.3% Protestant17.9%7.7%24.3%15.5%11.0% Other religion4.9%4.4%6.1%5.3%7.8% Unaffiliated8.5%6.9%8.9%12.9%47.9% “Men make better leaders” Agree a lot4.7%5.9%4.1%3.0%3.1% Agree15.2%18.3%12.5%17.7%12.9% Disagree48.2%42.4%46.8%50.1%44.8% Disagree a lot32.0%33.4%36.6%24.1%39.3%

Key finding: Religiosity matters.. But in opposite directions that don’t match secularism or Catholicism rates

Key finding: Tradition doesn’t matter very much

3 take-away conclusions Religion isn’t getting in the way of support for women political leaders and policies that would lead to the election of more women. The presence of more secularism or pluralism in a country does not explain why some Latin American countries are more supportive of women political leaders than others. We should stop ignoring religion or assuming that it should have a static, unidirectional effect, which is something that qualitative researchers have been saying for a very long time.