Abstract: We investigate differential responses by gender tocompetitive persuasion in political campaigns. We implemented a survey and afield experiment during two mayoral elections in Italy. Eligible voters wereexposed to positive or negative campaign by an opponent (or no campaign). Thesurvey experiment used an on-line campaign with videos and slogans. The fieldexperiment used door-to-door campaigning. In both experiments, stark genderdifferences emerge. Females vote more for the opponent and less for the incumbent when exposed to positivecampaigning. Males do the opposite. These gender differences cannot beexplained by gender identification,ideology, or votersobservable attributes.