Female political role models have an empowering effect on women
The late Margaret Thatcher - Britain's first and, so far, only female Prime Minister - is criticised for failing to do more to help other women get ahead in politics. Supporters argue, however, that the example she set will, on its own, have been of profound benefit to women with leadership ambitions.
Notes that Latu and her collaborators gathered 149 participants from Swiss colleges, with 81 women and 68 men. The students were asked to make a formal, persuasive presentation to a virtual public audience, denouncing student fee increases.
The virtual audience was made of 24 individuals equally divided between male and female. The key to the study was that some of the participants delivered their speeches with a large photo of Hillary Clinton, Angela Merkel, Bill Clinton, or no photo at all on the back wall.
The researchers were surprised to find that female participants who spoke in front of the posters of Merkel and Clinton spoke for much longer, and their speeches were deemed of better quality by objective observers unaware of the study. With Merkel, women spoke 49 % longer and 24% longer with Hillary Clinton, making their speeches the same length as the males.
The males were entirely unaffected by the posters at the back of the room. The study indicates that females are positively affected by female role models when placed in public speaking positions, which reflects on women in politics. Role models are a key in motivating female public speakers (or future politicians), and the information is vital because research of this kind has not been performed in the political arena.
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Source is BPS-Research-Digest.blogspot.com
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Before you move on, what importance are female role models in general for young girls?