Exposure to Political Violence Does Not Reduce Political Involvement Among Women.
Conditionally accepted, European Journal of Political Research, 2025
Do attacks against politicians affect the descriptive representation of women? Studies suggest that female candidates are more likely to become targets of political crime, but little is known about the consequences for descriptive representation. To study this question, we combine analyses of observational data measuring crimes against politicians with evidence from a survey experiment. Examining German local elections, we demonstrate that attacks against politicians are not associated with fewer female candidates on party lists. In addition, our survey experiment, using a sample of likely candidates, shows that exposure to political crime does not reduce willingness to run for office or engage in politics among female respondents. If anything, our findings suggest that political violence might reduce the gender gap in local politics. Our results highlight resilience among female candidates in face of increasing political violence.