Bridging the enduring gender gap in political interest in Europe: the relevance of promoting gender equality

Fraile, M and Gomez, R (2017) Bridging the enduring gender gap in political interest in Europe: the relevance of promoting gender equality. European Journal of Political Research, 56 (3). pp. 601-618.

Text Fraile Gomez 2016 EJPR ManuscriptwithTablesandFigures.pdf - Author Accepted Manuscript Download (3MB)

Abstract

Notwithstanding the improvement in gender equality in political power and resources in European democracies, this study shows that on average declared interest in politics is 16% lower for women than for men in Europe. This gap remains even after controlling for differences in men’s and women’s educational attainment, material, and cognitive resources. Drawing on the newly developed European Institute for Gender Equality’s (EIGE) Gender Equality Index (GEI) and on the European Social Survey (ESS)-fifth wave, we show that promoting gender equality contributes towards narrowing the magnitude of the differences in political interest between men and women. However, this effect appears to be conditioned by the age of citizens. More specifically, findings show that in Europe gender-friendly policies contribute to bridging the gender gap in political engagement only during adulthood, suggesting that childhood socialisation is more strongly affected by traditional family values than by policies promoting gender equality. In contrast, feminising social citizenship does make a difference by reducing the situational disadvantages traditionally faced by women within the family and in society for middle-aged people and above.

Item Type:	Article
Uncontrolled Keywords:	political interest, gender gap, socialisation, gender equality, age differences
Depositing User:	Symplectic Admin
Date Deposited:	22 Jun 2016 09:37
Last Modified:	19 Jan 2023 07:35
DOI:	10.1111/1475-6765.12200
Related URLs:	Author Publisher
URI:	https://livrepository.liverpool.ac.uk/id/eprint/3001809