Mind the Gender Gap: An Experiment on the Influence of Self-Efficacy on Political Interest

2016 ◽  
Vol 12 (01) ◽  
pp. 198-217 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jessica Robinson Preece
Keyword(s):  
Adverse Selection ◽  
Gender Gap ◽  
Role Models ◽  
Political Engagement ◽  
The Political ◽  
Civic Life ◽  
Structural Factors ◽  
Family Obligations ◽  
Men And Women ◽  
Relevant Role

In a healthy democracy, one would expect to see roughly equal levels of political participation among men and women. Yet—aside from voting—women are significantly less politically engaged than men at both the mass and elite levels (Atkeson 2003; Bennett and Bennett 1989; Burns, Schlozman, and Verba 2001; Lawless and Fox 2010; Verba, Burns, and Schlozman 1997). The political engagement gender gap suggests that some form of “adverse selection” is at play in the system (Mansbridge 1999, 632). This takes many forms: women have traditionally had less access to resources, more burdensome family obligations, and fewer relevant role models. However, emerging research demonstrates that even when accounting for many of these factors, women remain less engaged with politics than similarly situated men. This suggests that changing these structural factors is not enough to close the gender gap in political engagement—we must address the “gendered psyche” that prevents many women from fully participating in civic life (Lawless and Fox 2010, 12).

scholarly journals The Career Length and Service of Female Policymakers in the US House of Representatives

2016 ◽  
Vol 53 (3) ◽  
pp. 437-460 ◽  
Author(s):  
Rodrigo Praino ◽  
Daniel Stockemer
Keyword(s):  
Gender Gap ◽  
House Of Representatives ◽  
Electoral System ◽  
The Political ◽  
Political Careers ◽  
Men And Women ◽  
Representation Of Women ◽  
Career Length ◽  
The Us ◽  
Using Data

Various studies have outlined the institutional (e.g. the existence of quota laws and the electoral system type of a country) and non-institutional factors (e.g. the political culture of a country) that account for variation in women’s representation, in general, and, in more detail, the low representation of women in the US Congress. However, no study has, so far, compared the Congressional career paths of men and women in order to understand whether this gender gap in representation stems from a difference in terms of the duration and importance of the careers of male and female policymakers. Using data on all US House elections between 1972 and 2012, we provide such an analysis, evaluating whether or not the political careers of women in the US House of Representatives are different from the political careers of their male counterparts. Our findings indicate that the congressional careers of men and women are alike and, if anything, women may even have a small edge over their male colleagues.

scholarly journals Working-hour Trends in the Nordic Countries: Convergence or Divergence?

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Aart-Jan Riekhoff ◽  
Oxana Krutova ◽  
Jouko Nätti
Keyword(s):  
Gender Gap ◽  
Working Hours ◽  
Annual Data ◽  
Structural Factors ◽  
Age Group ◽  
Men And Women ◽  
Time Work ◽  
Part Time ◽  
Part Time Work ◽  
Working Hour

In this article, we investigate changes in usual working hours and part-time work in Denmark, Finland, Norway, and Sweden in recent decades. We analyze whether convergence or divergence occurred between countries, between men and women, and between men and women in each country. We use annual data from the European Labor Force Survey to identify trends between 1996 and 2016 (N = 730,133), while controlling for a set of structural factors. The findings suggest a degree of divergence between countries: usual working hours and the incidence of part-time work were relatively stable in Finland and Sweden, while working hours decreased in Denmark and Norway. The latter is partly driven by a decline among the 15–29 age group. The gender gap in working hours and part-time work was closed somewhat, in particular due to a rise in part-time work among men and a decline among women in Norway and Sweden.

scholarly journals The gender gap in political interest revisited

2019 ◽  
Vol 41 (4) ◽  
pp. 473-489 ◽  
Author(s):  
Monica Ferrín ◽  
Marta Fraile ◽  
Gema M García-Albacete ◽  
Raul Gómez
Keyword(s):  
Gender Gap ◽  
Online Survey ◽  
Political Interest ◽  
The Political ◽  
Dominant Male ◽  
Men And Women ◽  
Unique Data ◽  
Political Interests ◽  
Specific Interests

To what extent does conventional survey measurement capture the political interest of men and women equally well? We aim to answer this question by relying on unique data from a national online survey in Spain, where we used various questions unpacking the standard indicator of political interest. The findings show that men and women nominate different personal political interests. We also find that the gender gap in political interest vanishes once these specific interests are taken into account. This suggests that at least part of the documented gender gap in general political interest might be due to the fact that, when prompted to think about politics, women disregard their own specific political interests and instead focus on the dominant, male-oriented understanding of politics.

scholarly journals Sex Objects: How Self-Objectification Undermines Political Efficacy and Engagement

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Claire Gothreau
Keyword(s):  
Gender Gap ◽  
Political Behavior ◽  
Political Engagement ◽  
Political Efficacy ◽  
Structural Factors ◽  
Diverse Populations ◽  
Psychological Correlates ◽  
Recent Scholarship ◽  
Novel Approach ◽  
Self Objectification

Women are significantly less politically engaged than men at both the mass and elite levels. More recent scholarship has found that structural factors and standard predictors of political behavior no longer sufficiently explain this persistent gap in engagement. In the present study, I take a novel approach to exploring the discrepancy in men and women’s political engagement and participation. I ask: Does self-objectification, the internalization of observer’s perspectives of our physical bodies, undermine political engagement and in part, drive the gender gap in engagement? I argue that the cognitive, motivational, and affective correlates of self-objectification work to decrease political engagement and participation. I conduct two separate survey studies on diverse populations. Overall, I find a negative association between trait self-objectification and political engagement. These findings highlight the relevance of objectification and its cognitive and psychological correlates to the study of political engagement.

scholarly journals Gender Differences in Political Knowledge: Bringing Situation Back In

2017 ◽  
Vol 5 (1) ◽  
pp. 39-55 ◽  
Author(s):  
Toni Alexander Ihme ◽  
Markus Tausendpfund
Keyword(s):  
Stereotype Threat ◽  
Gender Gap ◽  
Gender Stereotypes ◽  
Online Survey ◽  
Political Knowledge ◽  
The Political ◽  
Structural Factors ◽  
Knowledge Test ◽  
Political Sciences ◽  
New Perspective

AbstractOne of the best-known empirical findings in the political sciences is the gender difference in political knowledge: women show less political knowledge than men. Conventional research argues that this difference is mainly a product of socialization, structural factors, and biology. Our paper brings a new perspective to the explanation of the gender gap in political knowledge. Based on an online survey and an experiment1, we emphasize the relevance of gender stereotypes as a situational pressure that reduces the performance of women in a political knowledge test. Two conclusions emerge from the analysis: First, our results indicate the existence of a negative stereotype related to the political knowledge of women. Second, the activation of gender stereotypes affects performance on a political knowledge test. Consistent with previous research on stereotype threat, our results indicate that the performance of men on a political knowledge test is affected by gender stereotypes.

scholarly journals Institutional Factors Affecting Women’s Political Engagement

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Vera Heuer ◽  
Gabriela Rangel
Keyword(s):  
Gender Gap ◽  
Political Engagement ◽  
Political Activity ◽  
Institutional Factors ◽  
Policy Outcomes ◽  
The Political ◽  
Extensive Literature ◽  
Political Arena ◽  
Institutional Determinants ◽  
The Impact

For decades, women were actively excluded from the political arena. As suffrage expanded around the world, women’s rights activists celebrated a major step toward gender equality in the political arena. Yet the gender gap in political engagement still persists to this day. Although in some countries, women are now found to turn out to vote at rates similar to men (and in industrialized countries, women may even vote at higher rates), they are still less likely to participate in many other types of political activities. Scholars have long investigated the factors influencing women’s political engagement. Early research focused heavily on individual level factors—most often lack of access to resources or informal networks—as determinants of the gender gap. A burgeoning body of literature, however, has identified institutions as an important factor influencing women’s political engagement. Thus this bibliography focuses on those institutional determinants of women’s political engagement defined as any type of political activity that nonelite women take part in. This includes voting, participating in campaigns, and engaging in demonstrations or protests, but also more cognitive aspects of engagement, such as political interest and political knowledge. This bibliography does not focus on the impact of institutions on women’s access or election into political office, as there is extensive literature on institutional determinants and women’s representation, which falls outside of the scope of women’s engagement as nonstate actors. The research outlined here, however, does consider a variety of institutional factors that influence women’s engagement. The bibliography begins by reviewing the literature on how the structures of the political system—including Regime Type, electoral rules, and quotas—impact women’s engagement. It then discusses how institutions can indirectly influence women’s political attitudes and behavior, by reviewing the impact of the composition of institutions on women’s engagement. That section is followed by a set of research that shows how institutional outcomes—namely Policy Outcomes and Institutional Support—influence various forms of political participation, and concludes with examples of nonstate institutions and their impact on women’s engagement.

Who Is Responsible for the Gender Gap? The Dynamics of Men’s and Women’s Democratic Macropartisanship, 1950–2012

2017 ◽  
Vol 70 (4) ◽  
pp. 749-761 ◽  
Author(s):  
Heather L. Ondercin
Keyword(s):  
Political Parties ◽  
Gender Gap ◽  
Seemingly Unrelated Regression ◽  
The Political ◽  
Men And Women ◽  
The Past ◽  
Unrelated Regression ◽  
Regression Framework ◽  
Symbolic Images ◽  
And Shifts

I argue the gender gap is a function of men and women changing their partisanship as they seek the best representation of their gendered social identity from the political parties. Specifically, shifts in the parties due to party realignments and shifts in the composition of parties’ congressional delegations have provided individuals with a clearer signal on which to base their partisan attachments. Men and women have responded differently to these signals and developed different political identities over the past seventy years, resulting in the gender gap in partisanship. To test this theory, I have constructed an innovative macro-level dataset of men’s and women’s partisan attachments on a quarterly basis between 1950 and 2012. I use a Seemingly Unrelated Regression framework to estimate patterns of men’s and women’s Democratic macropartisanship and whether particular factors contribute to the gender gap by having different effects on men’s and women’s partisanship. The results are consistent with my theoretical expectations, highlighting how symbolic images shape partisan attachments, and demonstrate the gender gap is a function of changes in both men’s and women’s macropartisanship.

Gender and ambitions for elected and appointed political positions: insights from Norway

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kristoffer Kolltveit
Keyword(s):  
Gender Gap ◽  
Role Models ◽  
The Political ◽  
Party Member ◽  
Political Careers ◽  
Male And Female ◽  
Opportunity Structures ◽  
Party Positions ◽  
The Impact ◽  
Main Factor

This article contributes to the emerging scholarship on the gender gap in political ambitions. While appointed party positions offer politically minded people the opportunity to have further political careers outside the elected path, the extent to which women prefer such alternative careers is unclear. This article investigates the gender gap in the political ambitions of young people in Norway. Studying the gender gap in a country with numerous role models and established opportunity structures allows us to understand how individual and contextual factors might affect ambitions for different elected and appointed political positions. This research also explores the impact of personality and upbringing. The article draws on a 2019–20 survey of young party member elites. Multivariate analysis reveals that gender is a main factor in differences in ambition for elected positions but less so for appointed positions.<br /><br />Key messages<br /><ul><li>Gender can explain differences in ambition for elected political positions in Norway.</li><br /><li>Male and female youth politicians are equally interested in appointed political positions.</li><br /><li>Youth politicians who are competitive, self-confident, determined, leader-like, achievement oriented and socially confident have higher political ambitions (both elected and appointed).</li></ul>

Espionage and Exile

2016 ◽  
Author(s):  
Phyllis Lassner
Keyword(s):  
Twentieth Century ◽  
Popular Culture ◽  
Cold War ◽  
Literary History ◽  
Political Engagement ◽  
The Political ◽  
International Crises ◽  
Popular Entertainment ◽  
John Le Carre ◽  
The Cold War

Espionage and Exile demonstrates that from the 1930s through the Cold War, British Writers Eric Ambler, Helen MacInnes, Ann Bridge, Pamela Frankau, John le Carré and filmmaker Leslie Howard combined propaganda and popular entertainment to call for resistance to political oppression. Instead of constituting context, the political engagement of these spy fictions bring the historical crises of Fascist and Communist domination to the forefront of twentieth century literary history. They deploy themes of deception and betrayal to warn audiences of the consequences of Nazi Germany's conquests and later, the fusion of Fascist and Communist oppression. Featuring protagonists who are stateless and threatened refugees, abandoned and betrayed secret agents, and politically engaged or entrapped amateurs, all in states of precarious exile, these fictions engage their historical subjects to complicate extant literary meanings of transnational, diaspora and performativity. Unsettling distinctions between villain and victim as well as exile and belonging dramatizes relationships between the ethics of espionage and responses to international crises. With politically charged suspense and narrative experiments, these writers also challenge distinctions between literary, middlebrow, and popular culture.

Women and Entrepreneurship – Albanian Case

2016 ◽  
Vol 1 (1) ◽  
pp. 249
Author(s):  
Anna Xheka
Keyword(s):  
Gender Equality ◽  
Gender Gap ◽  
Secondary Data ◽  
Special Focus ◽  
Full Time ◽  
Men And Women ◽  
Women’S Entrepreneurship ◽  
Part Time ◽  
Women's Entrepreneurship ◽  
The Difference

Women’s entrepreneurship is a powerful source, regarding to the women’s economic independence and empowerment, as well as regarding employment generation, economic growth and innovation, development and the reduction of poverty as well as one of the terms of gender equality. This poster presents the situation of women's entrepreneurship in Europe in comparative terms, with special focus in Albania. The paper has a descriptive nature. Describes three different plans in comparative terms; the representation of men and women in entrepreneurship, the representation of women in entrepreneurship in different countries of Europe and of Europe as a whole, as well as compare to gender quota. Through the processing of secondary data from various reports and studies, this poster concludes that although that the gender equality goal is the equal participation of men and women in all sectors, including the entrepreneurship, in this sector, gender gap it is still deep. Another significant comparative aspect, it is the difference between full and part –time women entrepreneurship. While in full time entrepreneurship in a convince way, men are those that dominate, in part time entrepreneurship clearly it’s evident the opposite trend, women's representation is much higher. It’s very interesting the fact, that the women’s entrepreneurship in Albania, presented in a significant optimistic situation, ranking in the second place, after Greece in the European level

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