Voting for women in recent Canadian elections

While the number of women standing as candidates in federal elections in Canada has surged, it is unclear how voters respond to the increased presence of women in politics. In this paper, we study who votes for women candidates in four recent federal elections. Using Canadian Election Study data and biographical information on candidates for the 2011, 2015, 2019 and 2021 federal elections, we examine the impact of the presence of women candidates on voting in Canadian elections. Leveraging the individual-level nature of our data, we also explore heterogeneity in voting for women candidates, with specific attention to patterns of gender affinity voting, and the moderating effects of gender consciousness and gender attitudes on voting for women. Our findings are similar to previous work in failing to show much evidence of an electoral disadvantage for women candidates. We also find very little evidence of heterogeneity in this basic null effect in terms of voters’ gender or their gender attitudes.