Candidate Evaluations by Men and Women

A widely accepted generalization in the social science literatureis that women tend to personalize politics and politicians.The purpose of this article is twofold. The first is to determinewhether an analysis of the available U.S. survey data from 1952to 1976 tends to support the claims made about how women differfrom men in their assessments of politicians. The second isto suggest alternative and more precise ways of conceptualizingboth men's and women's responsesto and evaluation of politicalleaders.