Adolescents’ attitudes toward women in politics: A follow-up study

Nebraska held the first all-women gubernatorial race in 1986. This provided an opportunity to assess the effects of female political role models on adolescents' attitudes toward women in politics. In 1987 we surveyed junior and senior high school students and compared their attitudes with those of adolescents surveyed in 1984. We found overall that adolescents held fairly positive attitudes toward women in politics. Compared to their 1984 counterparts, however, black female adolescents became much more optimistic about and willing to support female candidates, and white male adolescents became more pessimistic and less willing to support female candidates.