Do Women Vote Less Correctly? The Effect of Gender on Ideological Proximity Voting and Correct Voting

Ruth Dassonneville,Mary K Nugent,Marc Hooghe,Richard Lau

doi:10.1086/707525

Abstract

Studies routinely find that women have lower levels of political knowledge than men. This gender gap is usually interpreted as troublesome for democracy, because a lack of political knowledge could...

Highlights

One of the most consistent findings in the field of gender and politics is the observation that women have lower levels of political knowledge than men (Dassonneville and McAllister 2018; Fraile 2014)
Substantial gender gap in political knowledge, we find that women are about as likely as men to vote for the most proximate party or the ‘correct’ party
In the Comparative Study of Electoral Systems (CSES) data as well, we find that the knowledge score of women is significantly lower than the score of men

Summary

Introduction

One of the most consistent findings in the field of gender and politics is the observation that women have lower levels of political knowledge than men (Dassonneville and McAllister 2018; Fraile 2014). Because other determinants, including a variety of different political heuristics, are important as well, the gender gap in political knowledge does not deterministically lead to lower levels of correct voting among women. Substantial gender gap in political knowledge, we find that women are about as likely as men to vote for the most proximate party or the ‘correct’ party.

Results

Conclusion