The Influence of Gender and Facial Appearance on Voting Practices

Women’s faces tend to naturally retain more neonate features than men. These features, such as a greater eye height, a smaller nose area, and a wider smile, would cause women to have more immature faces than males. Interestingly, women who have these facial features are often perceived as more attractive than women with mature facial features. These findings imply that women would be judged less competent than men, and that immature-faced women would be perceived as less competent and more attractive than mature-faced females. Given the direction of political leadership in our country, this has interesting implications for females that are vying for leadership positions. Thus, our study examined the effects of both candidate gender and facial features on voting likelihood, and perceptions of attractiveness and competence, by pairing pictures with neutral party platforms.

Advocating at the margins: women’s NGOs in China

The development of non-governmental organizations (NGOs) in China has been unprecedented in the past fifteen years. The 1995 Fourth World Conference on Women (FWCW) and parallel NGO Forum in Beijing, China, opened the door for the first time for the establishment of women’s NGOs in China. This paper examines the development of Chinese women’s NGOs with a particular focus on two organizations in Beijing for marginalized female populations: one focusing on lesbians and the other helping women with HIV/AIDS. I examine the structure and growth of each NGO; however, on a more personal level and perhaps more importantly, I use the interviews I conducted with volunteers and clients of both organizations to analyze the importance of such organizations for lesbians and women living with HIV/AIDS. How have the lives of these women changed as a result of these particular organizations? What is their view regarding the support for lesbians and female HIV patients in China? These two case studies will shed light onto lesbians and women with HIV/AIDS in Beijing and the significance of such NGOs which function as the only support channels available for these two socially taboo communities.