Race, Gender and Politics in Star Trek by Sal Creber

They then measured participants’ political ambition and compared responses between women and men, and between Asian, Black, Latinx, and white respondents. In an online experiment, they presented participants with information about the gender gap in political ambition, accompanied by either a supply or a demand explanation. In this study, the authors hypothesize that supply explanations will reduce women’s political ambition, while demand explanations increase it, and that supply explanations will have a greater effect on women of color relative to white women.

On the other hand, emphasizing individual factors in failure (supply-side explanations) can lead to stereotype threat that is, a situation in which women and/or people of color feel at risk of confirming negative stereotypes, which can lead to avoidance. However, past research has shown that attributing failure to discrimination (a demand-side explanation) can increase performance and self-esteem among women and/or people of color by allowing them to discount the likelihood of personal failing. Little is known about how these narratives impact political ambition, especially among women of color, whose challenges and motivations are influenced by the intersection of gender and race/ethnicity. Demand-side explanations emphasize factors in the political system that limit women’s opportunities to pursue political office, in particular lower recruitment of women due to stereotypes and discrimination against them on the basis of gender.Supply-side explanations emphasize factors that affect women’s interest in pursuing political office, such as lack of self-confidence, the “second shift” of household work, and career choices influenced by gender role socialization, which may draw women to less competitive paths.This gender gap in political ambition has largely been explained in one of two narrative frames: Women are underrepresented in politics in part because they have less interest than men in running for political office.

Race, Gender and Politics in Star Trek by Sal Creber