Female Party Attachment in a Power-Sharing Polity: The Erosion of Protestant Support in Northern Ireland

Abstract

Power-sharing hinges on cooperation between communal parties who are expected to mobilize citizens in support of the new political system. Women are often ill-served, however, and their political differences exacerbated by such arrangements. Mindful of this finding and using data from the 2015 Northern Ireland Election Survey, we examine differences in party attachment between Catholic and Protestant women. The results suggest that Catholic women are more likely to claim a party attachment than Protestant women. The key factors accounting for this phenomenon are the differences in their levels of endorsement and the perceived effectiveness of the two main political parties.