About

Carolyn Barnett is an assistant professor in the School of Government and Public Policy and the School of Middle Eastern and North African Studies at the University of Arizona. She studies gender, political psychology, social policy, and political and economic behavior in the Middle East and North Africa. Her work has been published in various academic journals including The Journal of Politics, The American Journal of Political Science, Political Science Research & Methods, Comparative Political Studies, Politics & Gender, PS: Political Science and Politics, and Hawwa. Her dissertation, defended at Princeton in 2022, received the Best Dissertation Award from the Middle East and North African Politics Section of APSA in 2023, and an honorary mention for Best Fieldwork from the Democracy & Autocracy Section in 2022. She has held Fulbright scholarships to Morocco and Egypt and a Marshall Scholarship to the UK. Prior to her current position, she worked as a research fellow at the Center for Strategic and International Studies from 2012 to 2015.

Research topics

• Sociology
• Political Science
• Demographic economics
• Computer Science
• Law
• Psychology
• Economics
• Mechanical engineering
• Social psychology
• Gender studies
• Meteorology
• Geography
• Engineering
• Thermodynamics
• Mathematical analysis
• Labour economics
• Physics
• Microeconomics
• Mathematics
• Economic growth

Selected publications

• Does entrepreneurship create engaged citizens? Evidence from Jordanian youth

  Democratization · 2025-05-22

  articleSenior authorCorresponding

  Does encouraging young people to become entrepreneurs also generate more engaged citizens? Policymakers and donors have promoted entrepreneurship as an engine of both economic development and political participation. Yet we know little about whether and how these two things are linked at the individual level. Entrepreneurs who develop greater self-efficacy and specific economic interests may advance democratization, or they may eschew politics to protect their economic activities. Drawing on 40 interviews with university students and entrepreneurs in Jordan, we argue that there is little evidence that entrepreneurship either enhances or diminishes engagement in formal politics. Rather, family influence and social networks drive involvement in both entrepreneurship and politics. Nationally representative survey evidence shows that self-employed youth are slightly more likely to vote than most others, but do not participate more in other formal or informal political activities. Promoting entrepreneurship without strengthening support networks may reinforce status quo politics rather than deepening democratization.

  PublisherDOI

• Competent legislators or mere pawns? Experimental evidence of attitudes toward gender quota politicians

  Political Science Research and Methods · 2025-01-06 · 1 citations

  articleOpen access1st author

  Abstract Do citizens evaluate quota and non-quota politicians similarly? Do voters perceive quota-elected politicians as less competent and autonomous? Despite the proliferation of gender quotas, it remains unclear how citizens view female quota politicians compared to their non-quota male and female counterparts. This is particularly important in electoral systems where competitive and reserved seats both exist. We conducted a vignette experiment in Morocco where we randomized information about how politicians were elected and their legislative behavior. We find no evidence that voters evaluate quota women as less competent than non-quota male and female politicians. Our data demonstrate partial support for the argument that quota women are perceived as pawns of their parties, although information about legislative behavior can mitigate this perception.

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• What Does <i>Politics &amp; Gender</i> Publish? Trends, Methods, and Topics in Gender and Politics Research

  Politics & Gender · 2025-02-11 · 2 citations

  articleOpen access1st authorCorresponding

  Abstract We draw on a comprehensive dataset of metadata about journal articles substantively related to gender and politics published in 37 political science journals through the end of 2023, including Politics &amp; Gender , to characterize and compare trends over time and the most prominent topics addressed by these journals. We show that the volume of work published by Politics &amp; Gender has increased over time, has become increasingly quantitative in nature, and tends to focus on questions related to women running for political office and the nature of women’s political representation. These patterns closely reflect broader tendencies in the gender and politics research published by general-interest political science journals. Other journals dedicated to research on gender and politics tend to publish more qualitative research on topics including care work, the diffusion of equality norms, and conflict.

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• Gender Stereotypes in Autocracies: Experimental Evidence from Morocco

  The Journal of Politics · 2024-09-17 · 5 citations

  article1st authorCorresponding

  How do gender stereotypes shape voters’ evaluations of female politicians in autocracies? Despite increased women’s representation in autocracies, we know less about the link between gender stereotypes and voters’ assessment of female politicians in these contexts because findings on political gender stereotypes are mostly drawn from established democracies. This registered report draws on a nationally representative survey with an embedded conjoint experiment to examine how voters evaluate female politicians’ competency in a conservative electoral autocracy: Morocco. We argue that stereotypes would lead voters to generally view female politicians as less competent but that competency ratings would improve when women were described as assertive or ambitious, focused on priority issue areas, highly productive, or effective at clientelistic service provision. We find weak evidence that respondents evaluate male politicians more favorably and no evidence that gender stereotypes play a central role in shaping voters’ evaluations of either male or female politicians.

  PublisherDOI

• Women’s Rights and Misperceived Gender Norms Under Authoritarianism

  Comparative Political Studies · 2023 · 11 citations

  1st authorCorresponding
  • Political Science
  • Sociology
  • Social psychology

  Evidence from democracies shows that making laws more egalitarian can increase individuals’ perceptions that others hold egalitarian views. How do citizens in authoritarian regimes that promote women’s rights perceive public opinion on gender issues? While regime actions and narratives could increase perceptions that egalitarian attitudes are widespread, the disconnect between policy and public preferences could inhibit the expressive power of law to alter perceived norms. Drawing on original surveys and qualitative evidence from Morocco, an important case of de jure advances in women’s rights, I find that Moroccans tend to overestimate others’ embrace of patriarchal attitudes on gender issues. The tendency to misperceive conservatism spans demographic categories and is especially pronounced among men. I argue that citizens’ awareness that policy processes are divorced from electoral accountability and the raised salience of conservative opposition during reform processes can reinforce perceived conservatism, even as women’s rights advance.

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• All Politics Is Local: Studying Women’s Representation in Local Politics in Authoritarian Regimes

  Politics & Gender · 2023-03-16 · 8 citations

  article1st authorCorresponding

  The past decade has witnessed a significant increase in women’s presence in local politics. According to the newly published United Nations (UN) Women in Local Government data set, women constitute 36% of local deliberative bodies worldwide compared to merely 25% in national parliaments. 1 Much of this increase is the result of gender quotas: the Gender Quotas Database (International IDEA 2022) shows that as of 2021, 75 countries had some form of gender quota on the local level, 24 of which were authoritarian regimes. Yet, extant work on gender politics in authoritarian regimes tends to focus on the national level, given the highly centralized decision-making processes in such contexts. We contend that the study of women’s engagement and representation in local politics can help scholars better understand not only gender and politics, but also authoritarian politics more generally.

  PublisherDOI

• Replication Data for: Women's Rights and Misperceived Gender Norms Under Authoritarianism

  Harvard Dataverse · 2023-05-31

  datasetOpen access1st authorCorresponding

  This Dataset contains the anonymous survey data, Codebook, and R code necessary to replicate the analyses in the article "Women's Rights and Misperceived Gender Norms Under Authoritarianism."

  PublisherDOI

• Application of the Ohio Nurse Competency Model in a BSN Leadership/Management Course

  Nursing Education Perspectives · 2023-04-12

  article

  ABSTRACT: Strategically preparing students to meet practice expectations is a priority for nursing educators. The Ohio Nurse Competency Model (ONCM) was applied as the organizing framework for a senior baccalaureate leadership/management course. The purpose of this pretest/posttest descriptive study was to evaluate changes in students' confidence in understanding, applying, and valuing the ONCM. Paired t -tests found statistically significant increases in confidence levels for all ONCM competencies among 56 students with greatest increases in systems-based practice and informatics and technology. Nurse educators are encouraged to intentionally structure and organize course content and curricula according to state and national competency models/guidelines.

  PublisherDOI

• Gender Research in Political Science Journals: A Dataset

  PS Political Science & Politics · 2022-06-13 · 5 citations

  articleOpen access1st authorCorresponding

  ABSTRACT Research on gender and politics is becoming increasingly mainstreamed within political science. To document this process, we introduce a comprehensive dataset of articles published in 37 political science journals through 2019 that can be considered “gender and politics” research. Whereas recent related literature has explored the descriptive representation of women in political science by examining authorship and citation patterns, we argue that the identification of publications substantively focused on gender and politics not only illuminates trends but also can contribute to broader conversations about substantive representation and methodological diversity in the discipline. This article highlights the theoretical challenges of identifying gender and politics research and analyzes major trends in the substantive representation of gender in the journals over time. This dataset is useful for scholars who are interested in the evolution of salient topics in gender and politics research and patterns of citation.

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• PSC volume 55 issue 3 Cover and Front matter

  PS Political Science & Politics · 2022

  • Computer Science
  • Computer Science
  • Mathematics

  An abstract is not available for this content so a preview has been provided. As you have access to this content, a full PDF is available via the ‘Save PDF’ action button.

  DOI

Frequent coauthors

• Steve L. Monroe

  National University of Singapore

  8 shared

• Amaney Jamal

  8 shared

• Carrie Keib

  Cedarville University

  4 shared

• Chu‐Yu Huang

  Guangzhou Medical University

  4 shared

• Manika Lamba

  University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign

  3 shared

• Katie Krumbholz

  Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey

  3 shared

• Marwa Shalaby

  University of Wisconsin–Madison

  3 shared

• Michael FitzGerald

  Rutgers Sexual and Reproductive Health and Rights

  2 shared

Awards & honors

• Best Dissertation Award from the Middle East and North Afric…
• honorary mention for Best Fieldwork from the Democracy & Aut…
• Fulbright scholarships to Morocco and Egypt
• Marshall Scholarship to the UK