The underrepresentation of women in political positions continues to be a reality, despite having the formal right to access it guaranteed for decades. One of the phenomena that could influence inequalities between men and women in the field of politics is gender roles. According to Royo Prieto (2011), the arrival of children into families is a moment in which gender dynamics are traditionalized, reinforcing and reproducing roles and stereotypes. In this sense, the question this research revolves around is the following: What impact do motherhood and fatherhood have on the evaluations of political representatives?

Based on the previously stated research question, three central concepts are established: motherhood, paternity, and descriptive representation. The first two are closely related, but they are two separate phenomena that give rise to differentiated roles within families, shaping the lives of women and men differently. The third is based on the idea that the presence of women in political positions is a form of political representation in itself, and in the present research, it provides the framework to understand how evaluations of this descriptive representation of women vary between women and men with and without children:

H1. Men rate women's political skills lower than women do.
H2. Motherhood implies a lower rating of women's political skills.
H3. Fatherhood does not imply significant differences in the rating of women's political skills.

Royo Prieto, R. (2011). Maternidad, paternidad y conciliación en la CAE: ¿es el trabajo familiar un trabajo de mujeres? Servicio de Publicaciones = Argitalpen Zerbitzua. https://dialnet.unirioja.es/servlet/libro?codigo=731697