Publications

  “Men Care Too: Gender, Empathy, and Political Compassion.” (with Leonie Huddy) In Masculinity in American Politics, edited by Dan Cassino & Monika McDermott. New York University Press: New York. 

Martin, Maggie. (under review). Masculinity and Voter Bias: Candidate Preferences Shaped by Traditional Gender Identity.  

Martin, Maggie and Dan Cassino. (under review). Gender, Perceptions, and the 2024 Election.

Huddy, Leonie, and Maggie Martin (working paper).  Defending Masculinity: On the Political Consequences of Gender Identity.

Martin, Maggie, and Leonie Huddy. 2024. Report on Masculine-Feminine Gender Identity Measure Analysis of Items on ANES Pilot Study. Submitted to the ANES Board.

I am honored to announce that I was awarded the Stony Brook Foundation Board of Trustees Dissertation Completion Endowed Fellowship for 2024-2025

This dissertation develops and applies a novel measure of gender identity to examine how masculinity and femininity shape political behavior in the United States. Building on existing scholarship, I introduce the MF Gender Identity Scale, a continuous measure that invites respondents to locate themselves on a spectrum from completely masculine to completely feminine, supplemented by follow-up items to assess the intensity and meaning of that identity. This new approach reveals that people define their gender identity not only through personality traits – like those captured by traditional measures such as the Bem Sex Role Inventory – but also through perceptions of gender roles, biological sex, physical characteristics, and sexual orientation. Using original survey data and experimental designs, I show that individuals who strongly identify with traditional gender roles – masculine men and feminine women – are more likely to identify as Republicans and to hold conservative views on gender-related policies. These associations persist even when controlling for ideological self-placement and standard demographic variables. I also explore how gender identity shapes candidate preferences in primary elections, where choices are more fluid. Across several studies, I find suggestive evidence that voters high in traditional gender identity are more likely to support candidates who present as traditionally masculine, particularly masculine men, and that gender identity serves as a critical signal of political ideology. My findings underscore that personal gender identity plays a central role in shaping political preferences – not only on gender-related issues but also in structuring broader patterns of partisan alignment and vote choice. By recentering gender identity as a personal psychological orientation rather than a static demographic trait, this dissertation contributes to the fields of political psychology, gender and politics, and the broader study of American politics. It demonstrates that masculinity and femininity are not merely cultural stereotypes, but active forces shaping political behavior in contemporary American politics.

Martin, Maggie. 2025. Masculinity and Voter Bias: Candidate Preferences Shaped by Traditional Gender Identity. Paper to be presented at the Midwest Political Science Association Conference in Chicago, IL. 

Martin, Maggie. 2024. Personal Masculine and Feminine Identities in Relation to Candidate Identity. Paper presented at the New Research on Gender in Political Psychology Conference at Brandeis University, Waltham, MA.

Huddy, Leonie, and Maggie Martin. 2024. Political Consequences of Gender Identity. Paper presented at the annual EPOVB Conference at Florida State University.

Huddy, Leonie, Maggie Martin, and Lauren Palladino. 2023. Gender Identity and Partisan Sorting. Paper presented at the meeting of the Empirical Study of Gender Research Network at Cornell University, Ithaca, NY.

Huddy, Leonie, Maggie Martin, and Lauren Palladino. 2023. Gender Identity and Partisan Sorting. Paper presented at the annual meeting of the American Political Science Association, Los Angeles, CA.

Huddy, Leonie, Maggie Martin, and Lauren Palladino. 2023. Gender Identity & Partisan Sorting. Paper presented at the annual meeting of the International Society of Political Psychology, Montreal, Canada. 

Huddy, Leonie, and Maggie McDonnell. 2022. Gender, Empathy, and Political Behavior. Paper presented at the annual meeting of the Midwest Political Science Association, Chicago, IL.