Gender Dimensions of Support for Local Policy: Resident, Policymaker, and Policy Gender

There is a well-established triadic relationship between satisfaction with public services, trust in leaders, and policy support in developed democracies. This study takes a novel approach by considering how gender is associated with the strength and direction of these connections, an element underexplored in the literature. Gender can manifest in several ways: a characteristic of residents, a trait of policymakers, and a lens through which a policy is perceived as a male or female domain. We assess how these dimensions relate to direct and mediated pathways among satisfaction, trust, and support. Using a survey experiment among 500 residents of Haifa, Israel, we identify stronger satisfaction–trust associations among female respondents (citizen gender) and a stronger trust–support association when the policymaker is a woman (policymaker gender). Additionally, trust in a policymaker is often accompanied by higher policy support when the policymaker is a woman and a policy falls within a domain associated with women. These patterns are most pronounced when all three dimensions align as female–female residents, female policymakers, and policies perceived as feminine. No gendered patterns emerged for policies perceived as male domains. The findings demonstrate how gendered identities and stereotypes shape public opinion in advanced local democracies.