A recent article in The Atlantic discusses how Republican and Democratic operatives alike are looking hard for women candidates. This isn't just because the gender gap played such a large role in Democrats' success in the last election. Researchers find that voters are likely to view women candidates as more trustworthy than male ones, as being more likely to challenge the "boys' club" of insider Washington politics, to represent faithfully the interests of ordinary people back home.
But a sidebar to the same article notes that gender stereotypes usually don't work in women's favor. People who view resumes that are identical except for the names of the applicants (Heidi versus Howard, for example) are much more likely to rate the male candidate as more qualified, whether the job is as a software engineer, researcher, or violist. The differences are not small. One study found that female musicians were 50 percent more likely to audition successfully if listeners did not know their gender, if they only heard the music and did not see it being played.
In other words, we tend to assume that women are nicer but less intelligent and talented than men.
http://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2013/05/a-womans-edge/309284
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