Contents lists available at ScienceDirect Electoral Studies journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/electstud The impact of gender and quality opposition on the relative assessment of candidate competency Regina Branton a,∗ , Ashley English a , Samantha Pettey b , Tiffany D. Barnes c a University of North Texas, United States b Massachusetts College of Liberal Arts, United States c University of Kentucky, United States ABSTRACT Extant women & politics literature suggests males are perceived to be better leaders than females. Men are more likely than women to be perceived as competent, decisive, and capable of handling crises all important qualities – for elected o cials. This research suggests, on average, female elected o cials are viewed as less competent ffi ffi than their male colleagues. Yet, extant literature typically examines perceived competency of elected o cials in ffi a vacuum. Notably, the research does not take in to account how the gender and quality of opposing candidates may in uence the perceived competency of an elected o cial. In this research note, we address this limitation fl ffi by examining evaluations of members of the U.S. House (henceforth MC) relative to the evaluations of their challenger. We nd gender di erences are larger and more pronounced when we compare male and female MCs fi ff competing against quality challengers. The extant literature on women & politics suggests males are per- ceived to be better leaders than females. Men are more likely than women to be perceived as competent, decisive, and capable of handling crises all important qualities for elected o cials ( ; – ffi Burrell, 2008 Holman et al., 2011 2017 Paul and Smith, 2008 , ; ). This research sug- gests, on average, female elected o cials are viewed as less competent ffi than their male colleagues. Yet, extant literature typically only ex- amines gender di erences of elected o cials, rather than accounting ff ffi for how gender and the quality of opposition candidates may in uence fl citizens' attitudes about their representatives. This research note addresses this limitation by examining the scores, or evaluations, of members of the U.S. House (henceforth MCs) and their challengers. We examine the gap, or di erence, between the ff competency scores citizens give to each candidate. We propose the gap in candidate evaluations varies as a function of the gender of the can- didates in a race, partisanship, and the quality of the challenging can- didate. We test our expectations using the 2010 Cooperative Congressional Election Study and U.S. House candidate data. We nd fi gender di erences in the relative assessment of competency emerge; ff however, these gender di erences are more pronounced when we ff compare male and female MCs facing quality challengers. 1. Gender, party, opposition & perceptions of candidates Extant research demonstrates voters employ gender and partisan cues to inform their evaluations of candidates. With respect to gender, research suggests gender stereotypes in uence how male and female fl candidates are evaluated ( ; Alexander and Andersen, 1993 Barnes and Beaulieu, 2014 Burrell, 2008 Huddy and Terkildsen, 1993 Kahn, ; ; ; 1996 King and Matland, 2003 Lawless, 2004 Leeper, 1991 Paul and ; ; ; ; Smith, 2008). Traditional gender stereotypes emphasize women's communal traits and men's agentic traits ( ). For in- Cuddy et al., 2007 stance, men are more likely than women to be perceived as competent, decisive, strong leaders, and capable of handling crises; all of which are important qualities for elected o cials ( ; ffi Alexander and Andersen, 1993 Burrell, 2008 Holman et al., 2011 2017 Huddy and Terkildsen, 1993 ; , ; ; Kahn, 1996 King and Matland, 2003 Lawless, 2004 Leeper, 1991 ; ; ; ; Paul and Smith, 2008). As such, female candidates are often viewed as not competent or lacking the leadership traits than compared to male candidates ( ; , ; Bauer, 2017 Holman et al., 2011 2017 Huddy and Terkildsen, 1993 Kahn, 1996 King and Matland, 2003 Lawless, 2004 ; ; ; ). Relatedly, research suggests voters are more likely to seek out in- formation regarding competency about female candidates (Ditonto, 2017) and female candidate evaluations are more heavily in uenced by fl information regarding competency than compared to male candidates ( ). Further, recent research suggests in order to be Ditonto et al., 2014 ∗ Corresponding author. E-mail address: Regina.Branton@unt.edu (R. Branton). Electoral Studies 54 (2018) 35–43