Research Overview

I am a scholar of American Politics and Political Behavior whose research examines how beliefs about gender influence citizens’ attitudes, engagement in politics, and political knowledge. Drawing on interdisciplinary theories on the effects of gender on behavior, I develop theory that argues that gender identification combines with beliefs about gender to impact political behavior and attitudes. This approach builds on existing literature in political science that argues that the effects gender identification may be overstated in the political behavior literature and offers an alternative gender-based perspective to explain the differences in behavior that we see between men and women.

My work contributes to pressing conversations about gender and political behavior. In January 2025, the Trump administration released a Presidential Action that addresses sex, gender, and gender ideology. This highlights that gender, and how citizens think about it, is increasingly salient in U.S. politics. Further, in March of 2026, a global survey found that Gen Z men and women were more likely to believe that women should obey their husbands than Baby Boomers , highlighting shifting attitudes about gender ideology.

Peer Reviewed Publications

Samantha J. DeRagon, Caroline Tolbert, and Robert G. Boatright. 2026. “Gender, Party, and Primary Turnout.” Political Research Quarterly. DOI:10.1177/10659129261426024

Pacheco, Julianna, Nicole Novak, Samantha J. DeRagon, and Stephanie Schmitt. 2026. “Measuring Community Power as a Structural Determinant of Health for Latino Communities.” The Milbank Quarterly: 1468-0009.70072. DOI:10.1111/1468-0009.70072.

Samantha J. DeRagon and Caroline Tolbert. 2026. “Partisanship and the Gender Gap in Election Integrity: Gender Accentuates the Winner-Loser Gap.” Politics and Governance. DOI:10.17645/pag.11650

Book Chapters

Boatright, Rob, Samantha J. DeRagon, Karen Sebold, Eric Heberlig, and Caroline Tolbert. “What do Party Elites Think about Election Reform?” Forthcoming in the 10th edition of The State of the Parties.

Under Review

DeRagon, Samantha J. “Gender Beliefs and Gender Gaps: The Conditional Role of Gender Ideology in Political Knowledge.”

DeRagon, Samantha J. “Partisans or Partisan Women? Reconsidering Gender and Affective Polarization using Social Distance Measures.”

Boehmke, Frederick J., Thomas Dainty, DeRagon, Samantha J., Hyein Ko, Taylor Tokos, Tianhui Wu, and Weidong Zhang “The Use of Data Visualization in Political Science.” Revise and Resubmit at PS: Political Science & Politics

Pacheco, Julianna, and DeRagon, Samantha J. “Collecting Personally Identifying Information for Political Surveys.”

DeRagon, Samantha J., Broderick J. DeBettignies, and Caroline Tolbert. “Reassessing the Gender Gap in Voter Turnout in U.S. Elections.”

Working Papers

DeRagon, Samantha J. “From Home to Party: How Gender Socialization Shapes Partisan Identity Across Generations.”

Boatright, Robert G., DeRagon, Samantha J., and Caroline Tolbert. “Characteristics of Concurrent and Nonconcurrent Primary Voters in 2020 and 2024.”

Donovan, Todd, DeRagon, Samantha J., and Caroline Tolbert. “Who Votes in Primaries? Developing a State-Level Primary Electorate Representativeness Index.”

DeRagon, Samantha J., and Broderick J. DeBettignies. “Women or Democratic Women?: Examining the Partisan Gender Gap in U.S. Elections.”