What Girls Do: The Effects of Exposure to Women Candidates on Adolescents' Attitudes toward Women Leaders.

This article examines how exposure to women politicians influences adolescents' beliefs about women's political leadership capacity in the United States. Using a panel survey conducted around the 2020 election, the study finds that Republican adolescents—especially Republican girls—who encounter viable, novel women candidates become more likely to support increased female political representation and to attribute both traditionally feminine and masculine leadership traits to women. These attitude shifts are not observed among adults or Democratic adolescents, likely due to Democrats’ already high baseline support for women leaders. The findings highlight the role of descriptive representation in challenging gender stereotypes during adolescence, a formative period for political socialization, and suggest that increasing women’s visibility in politics may reduce partisan gaps in perceptions of women’s leadership ability.