La influencia del sexo del candidato presidencial en la decisión del elector

Abstract

That several women in the region have managed to gain politically relevant positions of popular election has generated a generalized idea that women gained political power and left the media and social invisibility. Also that woman has managed to position herself in the public space; and that she assumed her status as a citizen with full rights. However, it is likely that their political presence does not respond to a cultural change, or to an overcoming of gender stereotypes linked to the woman-power or woman-leadership relationship. To verify that is one of the fundamental objectives of this research that, through the application of controlled experiments, determines if the Ecuadorian elector would be willing to vote for a woman for president of the Republic, and if his decision is associated with the attributes and candidates' abilities or is influenced by the sex of the candidate and gender stereotypes. These results are also validated with surveys, interviews with political actors and observation of the general elections of Ecuador 2017, specifically to Cynthia Viteri's campaign. In addition, this research rescues findings on campaign strategies that could neutralize or minimize the effect that gender stereotypes can have on the victory or failure of a presidential candidate. This is done considering the analysis of six presidential election campaigns of women: three successful (Dilma Rousseff, Michelle Bachelet, and Cristina Fernández) and three failed (Marina Silva, Keiko Fujimori and Cynthia Viteri) to identify how did they managed their status of women and gender stereotypes. Although several women managed to gain access to the presidency of countries in the South American region at almost the same time, today that same region is again led by men only. So it becomes a priority to start thinking about why those women managed to access those positions. And if it is possible that another woman returns to lead a country in the region and especially, Ecuador. According to the results obtained, the Ecuadorian voter tends to vote for man. And if the voter doesn't vote for a woman, it doesn't do it because he considers that she is not ready, doesn't have the profile, or doesn't have the necessary attributes. The voter doesn't do so because of its inability to dissociate itself from its gender stereotypes and to accept that there is no inconsistency between women and power, and women and politics. Apparently, these stereotypes make the Ecuadorian voter unable to accept that a woman can lead the country and provide solutions to issues that are considered male as crime or economic growth. Impossibility that is also derived from the fact that the Ecuadorian citizen probably doesn't know or understand the concept of female leadership, since it doesn't have any national reference leading a complex country with serious economic and social problems like Ecuador. However, it is possible that women can minimize the impact of these stereotypes through the electoral campaign. So, the voter can consider her suitable for the position. It doesn't matter if the candidate win, but she opens the way for future candidates or elections. Also, a series of suggestions on future lines of research on the subject is also included. Stereotypes are an important variable in the decision of the voter, but also there are many more variables that can influence the victory or failure of a presidential candidate. In the end, it is expected that there will be more and more candidates trying to access all elected political positions, especially presidency, because of the level of visibility provided by that space and the type of complex decisions demanded by the exercise of the position. And although there are a number of edges on the subject that can be addressed, this type of research is valid and useful approaches to overcome the theoretical level and applied the obstacles that prevent these women from achieving it.