Diana O'Brien

Up next: "Double Glass Ceiling
The Class Effects of Gender Representation" by @yesolakweon.bsky.social & @jeonghyunkim.bsky.social. They argue that the link between 🚺's descriptive and symbolic representation differs across economic class, w/ implications for 🚺's political attitudes & behavior.

Conflict and Maternal Health Cambridge Core - Politics: General Interest - Conflict and Maternal Health

In this Element, @fthames.bsky.social + @ladyprofessor.bsky.social takes a large-N approach to exploring whether inequality variation in states at conflict leads to variation in women's health outcomes. Free to download now! 2/

www.cambridge.org/core/element...

Free 📚🚨! I've got 2 great, short monographs for you to download today! Up first, "Conflict and Maternal Health
Linking the Gendered Causes and Gendered Consequences of War" by @fthames.bsky.social + @ladyprofessor.bsky.social. 1/

I am a political scientist. I am also the proud chair of WashU's small but mighty women, gender, and sexuality studies department. Political scientists: it's time to stand w/ gender studies, Black studies and similar units. We must all hang together, or most assuredly we shall all hang separately.

The same people who claim they want to "defend women." Gender studies departments have incredibly committed instructors. They get students to read, write, and think, exposing them to interdisciplinary coursework that helps them make sense of the world. They do this with limited resources & support.

The world can feel bleak these days, so I’m grateful to have a book on gender, political trust, and efficacy—written by someone so smart and generous—to flip through when I feel a little low. Get yourself a copy, too! The Politics of Perception by @kstauffer.bsky.social: shorturl.at/6BOTS

The politics of perception: how beliefs about women’s inclusion shape democratic legitimacy in the US, by Katelyn Stauffer

One of my favorite Christmas gifts this year was "The Politics of Perception," sent to me by the brilliant author, @kstauffer.bsky.social. It's a must-read book about how & why Americans' (mis)perceptions of 🚺's political representation influence their efficacy, trust, approval of institutions.

Logo of the British Journal of Political Science with the hashtag 'OpenAccess' at the bottom, all text in white on a green background.

All articles from our 2025 volume can be accessed here -

https://cup.org/49tQEFp

#OpenAccess

Does news about a more diverse Congress change how Americans see democracy?

In POQ, Olson et al. find that diversity boosts Democrats’ trust in Congress, has no effect on Republicans, and does not weaken support for democratic norms.

Read now: doi.org/10.1093/poq/...

🚨Free book alert (for 2 weeks)!

In her new CUP Element, @caglayanbaser.bsky.social shows that rebel groups with♀️combatants are seen as more gender-equal, democratic and morally legitimate, even when they perpetrate violence. This increases public support for government sponsorship of rebel groups!

Line chart showing the share of men/women ages 18-40 who want to leave the US permanently from 2008 to 2025. In 2025, 40% of women, and 19% of men, in this age cohort say they want to leave.

Line chart from 1993 to 2023 showing the share of 12th grader boys and girls who want to get married. In 2023, there is a 23 point gap, with girls less likely to want to get married.

Bar chart showing share of men/women who interact with their friends on social media, and how often. 30% of men say "never" compared to 18% of women.

Horizontal bar chart showing share of teen girls and teen boys who plan to go to college. 60% of girls but 46% of boys say they plan to go to college.

Now on my substack, Gender Gap: 5 notable gaps discussed in 2025.

1. leaving the U.S.
2. marriage aspirations
3. social media use
4. loneliness
5. college plans

I picked these bc they signal how men/women structure their social lives and are imagining their futures.

substack.com/home/post/p-...

Thanks Eric! Your work on minority candidate emergence/supply was really useful for shaping our thinking on this!

Excited that "Race, Gender, and Nascent Political Ambition" is now out in @bjpols.bsky.social. W/ survey of white, Hispanic, and Black American respondents, we show primary gap in nascent political ambition is not between men and women but between white men and the majority of the polity.

Anyway, this is a long thread to say how deeply sad I feel about this news. As a gender and politics scholar, I loved my time working with A&M students and faculty. I hate to think about what current and future students and colleagues are missing out on. 5/5

We generated hypotheses together. We looked at data. We learned, together. My colleagues trusted me, and my students trusted me. It was one of the most rewarding teaching experiences of my career. 4/

But the overwhelming majority came in indifferent, and a non-trivial share were skeptical. And honestly? I welcomed it. I’m an empirical social scientist. I’m always asking (and asking my students): How would you know if you were right? And, more importantly, how would you know if you were wrong? 3/

I taught my A&M women and politics class several times, and each instance was a joy. A minority of my students arrived already interested in gender equality in politics. It was a delight to connect with them. 2/

I once had the privilege of teaching a women & politics courses at Texas A&M. I inherited the class from a colleague, but I made it fully my own (no one double-checked my syllabi). And the course addressed gender, sexuality, and intersectionality—b/c, obvi. I have never enjoyed teaching more! 1/

Feeling grateful to @jennpiscopo.bsky.social for including our co-authored @apsrjournal.bsky.social article on gender quotas in this piece for @policyoptions.irpp.org. Despite pundits' fears, we find that 🚹's overrepresentation is much more corrosive to democratic legitimacy than gender quotas.

I’m really proud of (and grateful to) my colleagues for writing this op-ed. As a @washu.edu alumna and faculty member, I forcefully echo their statement. Faculty excellence and student success should be our lodestar. Signing the compact moves us further from those aims.

BJPolS abstract discussing observational research on gender bias in political contexts, focusing on voter behavior and representation in Australia, Britain, and the USA.

#OpenAccess from August 2025 -

Voter Sexism and Electoral Penalties for Women Candidates: Evidence from Four Democracies - cup.org/4m4smXP

"research suggests sexism is prevalent and consequential for voter behaviour"

- @rosieshorrocks.bsky.social, Elizabeth Ralph-Morrow & Roosmarijn de Geus

Are you attending #APSA2025 and (thinking of) writing a book on the topic of gender and politics?! Come meet the editors of the @cambup-polsci.cambridge.org Cambridge Studies in Gender & Politics! Friday at 2:30pm at the Sutton Place Hotel (Salon Cezanne). We want to talk w/ you!

Here's the catalog description the now-fired Texas A&M lecturer allegedly transgressed by giving a lecture about gender in children's literature.

ENGL 360 Literature for Children

Credits 3. 3 Lecture hours. Representative writers, genres, texts and movements.

president.tamu.edu/messages/an-...

So proud of @gdilandro.bsky.social for successfully defending his thesis "Political Parties and the Gender Voting Gap in Western Democracies: A Supply and Demand Framework." He's already published one dissertation paper in @bjpols.bsky.social & there's more great gender & politics work to come! 🍾

📘 New from Cambridge & free to download for the next two weeks!

"Attitudes toward Political Authoritarianism in Economically Advanced Democracies: The Role of Gender Values and Norms" by Amy C. Alexander & @gefjonoff.bsky.social!

Check out the 🧵 below for a great summary!

It’s a very intense two weeks! Thank you for giving it your all! Really excited to see your dissertation, work in print sometime soon, and will definitely be following the work that comes out of your postdoc!

Today was the last day of the EITM Summer School in Mannheim. I am so more knowledgeable, wise and much grateful to Prof. Thomas König for this opportunity, and to Prof. Thomas Bräuninger, Prof. Richard Traunmüller, Prof. @dzobrien.bsky.social & Prof. @fortunato.bsky.social for teaching all of us 🙏🏼

🚨 New Cambridge Element! Glass Ceilings, Glass Cliffs, and Quicksands by Andrea S. Aldrich & @zeynsom.bsky.social uses original data from 11 democracies (1980–2020) to examine how gender shapes party leadership selection & survival. Free for 2 more days: cup.org/3HqJXty #gender #politics

Congratulations to Dr. @ietchacq.bsky.social! She's such a tenacious, ambitious, and brilliant young scholar, and I'm lucky to have been able to play some small part in her Ph.D. journey! Keep a look out for her great CP work on the representation of marginalized groups!