Dissertation Research

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

In my dissertation research, I advance previous work by developing a refined measure of masculinity and femininity to better understand partisanship and preferences on gender-related policies. The MF Gender Identity Scale invites respondents to position themselves on a continuum from completely masculine to completely feminine, complemented by follow-up questions to assess the depth of their identification with each gender. Initial findings reveal that respondents base their gender identity not only on personal traits—similar to the Bem Sex Role Inventory—but also on factors such as gender roles, biological sex, physical attributes, and sexual orientation. My research indicated that individuals high in traditional gender identity – men who see themselves as very masculine and women who see themselves as very feminine – tend to align more with the Republican Party. I argue that this new measure of gender identity sheds light on how personal gender identity impacts political attitudes, particularly those related to gender, which are crucial for understanding broader issues of partisanship and ideology. Additionally, I extend this research to explore how this personal gender identity affects preferences for traditional versus non-traditional candidates in primary elections. My findings suggest that individuals with a strong traditional identity are more likely to support masculine candidates, particularly masculine male candidates. In this project, I also analyze how voter preferences are influenced by policy information, assessing how individual variation in gender identity plays a role. 

Huddy, Leonie, and Maggie Martin (in press). Men Care Too: Gender, Empathy, and Political Compassion.  Chapter in Masculinity in American Politics. Edited by Dan Cassino & Monika McDermott.

 Huddy, Leonie, and Maggie Martin (working paper). 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.

Martin, Maggie. (working paper). Personal Masculine & Feminine Identities in Relation to Candidate Identity.

Martin, Maggie (Dissertation Project in Progress). The Role of Masculine & Feminine Identities in American Politics.

Martin, Maggie, Hannah Nam, and Katherine Sawyer (data analysis phase). Explaining the Development of Political Ideology and Effects on Partisan Intolerance.

  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.