The election of Donald Trump in 2016 inspired sudden interest in the association between voters’ sexism and voting behaviour. Existing research shows that sexism may be a stronger predictor of political attitudes and voting behaviour than a voter’s gender. To what extent do the findings from the US presidential elections apply to other contexts and research questions? To answer this question, we present a systematic review of studies focusing on sexism as a predictor of political attitudes and voting behaviour. In two databases (Scopus and Web of Science), we identify 97 relevant studies, including 42 on the 2016 US presidential elections. The review shows that particularly modern and hostile sexism played a role in Trump’s election. However, few other research questions have been answered with similar certainty. Our review discovers gaps in the literature and proposes further directions for this growing research field. To enable future comparative research, we discuss best practices for measuring sexism and show the variety of ways in which sexism is operationalized. Download accepted manuscript

Although pioneering research suggested that proportional elections are better for women’s outcomes than plurality rules, research scholarship is accumulating growing evidence that this relationship depends on specific rules. We look at the impact of electoral rules on female participation in local legislative bodies using quasi-experimental variation in electoral systems in Poland. Below an exogenous population threshold, a mix of first-past-the-post and block vote was applied. Above the threshold, the system was open-list proportional representation. We find little difference between plurality and proportional elections on average. Furthermore, we find that voters chose women less often than men from the same ticket, even under block vote, i.e., when they could have supported all candidates from a chosen party, and even after controlling for the candidates’ incumbency status, position on the ticket, and age. Our results point to the limited and heterogeneous effects of electoral systems. Download accepted manuscript

Proportional representation electoral systems were long argued to increase the share of women, compared with majoritarian systems. However, recent studies provide strong evidence that, usually, less women are elected in open-list proportional representation than in closed-list proportional representation. In this study, we test whether open-list proportional representation is enough to increase the share of women in local legislative bodies. We examine a change from a first-past-the-post to an open-list proportional representation with gender quota in Polish municipality council elections. We exploit an arbitrary population threshold to use the difference-in-discontinuities and regression discontinuity designs and do not find sufficient evidence that this change affected women’s representation. We find little evidence for any effect on higher council fragmentation that could have harmed women’s chances, and, analysing simultaneously held regional elections, we find no effect of the reform on voter behaviour. We also show that women’s representation in Poland has been increasing over the past two decades, regardless of the electoral system changes. Thus, even substantial electoral reforms may have relatively little effect on women’s representation.

Gender mainstreaming is designed to address the social roles of both women and men. How are men included in gender equality policies? I conduct an analysis of all gender equality strategies and annual reports of the European Commission – a global leader in this field – since 1982. I find that, since the mid 1990s, the Commission has included men as contributors to gender equality (‘problem solvers’). Yet, men’s disadvantages in education and health were only addressed between 2006 and 2015. Later on, men’s problems have been ignored, as they have been increasingly portrayed as a uniformly privileged group, undeserving of European policies. This withdrawal from addressing men’s problems exposes the tension between legitimising policies for one group (women) and addressing the needs of a complementary group (men). A novel approach to gender equality policies should revive the global debate on their meaning and implications. My findings also raise new questions about the power of the European Commission to construct policy target populations. Download accepted manuscript

It is well known that incumbents enjoy advantages in elections. Among others, they may use public resources to increase their electoral chances by mobilizing specific social groups to vote. In the 2020 presidential elections, the Polish government organised a competition: small municipalities with the highest turnout could win a fire truck. We exploit the threshold of 20,000 that arbitrarily divided municipalities into competing and non-competing for this public good and apply the quasi-experimental Regression Discontinuity Design. The competition aimed to increase the turnout in districts supporting the incumbent president. However, we find no evidence of any significant impact of the competition on the turnout or support for the incumbent around the threshold. We discuss why similar practices are common despite this result. Download accepted manuscript

Skewed sex ratios have been found to increase crime and spread of diseases, as well as influence fertility decisions, gender roles, and economic development. I document the extent to which international and internal migration shape national and subnational sex ratios among young adults (SRYA). For this purpose, I analyze the data from the United Nations’ Urban and Rural Population by Age and Sex and World Population Prospects, focusing on the cohort born between 1975 and 1985 in 200 countries. I find that, while 33 countries have significantly skewed country-level sex ratios, as many as 107 of the 200 investigated countries have either rural or urban skewed SRYA in 2010. To identify the sources of sex ratio imbalances, I decompose country-level sex ratios into three factors: sex ratio at birth, relative probability of survival, and sex-selective migration. I show that without sex-selective international migration, country-level SRYA would be balanced in almost all countries of the world. In the third part of the study, I use Eurostat data for European subnational regions. I find a strong log-linear relationship between sex ratios and population density, that is, relatively more women among young adults as population density increases. Moreover, I show that skewed SRYA can be mainly attributable to sex-selective migration, rather than to imbalanced sex ratios at birth and differential mortality.