Campaigning on the welfare state: The impact of gender and gender diversity.

Laurenz Ennser-Jedenastik

doi:10.1177/0958928716685687

Abstract

Social policy matters have long been considered women’s issues. Extant research has documented a strong link between gender and the policies of the welfare state in the legislative, executive and electoral arenas. Yet what determines the strength of this association has largely been left unexplored. Drawing on tokenism theory, this article proposes gender diversity at the group level as a key explanatory factor. It hypothesizes that the gender gap in social policy diminishes as the female representation in a political party increases. To test this argument, it examines almost 8000 press releases issued by over 600 politicians during four election campaigns in Austria between 2002 and 2013. The analysis demonstrates that women talk more about social policy issues during election campaigns than men, but that this emphasis gap disappears for parties with a more equal gender balance. These results have important implications for our understanding of the politics of gender and social policy.

Highlights

Social policy issues have long been viewed as ‘feminine’ issues
Studies of parliamentary and electoral politics find that women members of parliament (MPs) are more likely to take the floor in debates on social policy issues, and that such issues have greater prominence in the campaigns of female candidates than in those run by their male counterparts (Bäck et al, 2014; Kahn, 1996)
The analysis shows that (1) even when taking functional segregation into account, women are more likely than men to address social policy questions in election campaigns and (2) this gender gap is much more pronounced in maledominated parties and disappears as the gender balance in a party becomes more equal

Summary

Introduction

Social policy issues have long been viewed as ‘feminine’ issues. Women are typically perceived as the more caring and compassionate gender, and the policy areas at the heart of the welfare state have been linked with stereotypically female traits (Huddy and Terkildsen, 1993). Studies of parliamentary and electoral politics find that women members of parliament (MPs) are more likely to take the floor in debates on social policy issues, and that such issues have greater prominence in the campaigns of female candidates than in those run by their male counterparts (Bäck et al, 2014; Kahn, 1996).

Results

Conclusion