Gender, voting and Christian Democratic parties

Abstract

ABSTRACTThe influence of gender on voting behaviour has attracted a growing amount of academic attention in recent years as scholars have looked for evidence that female voters have moved to the left in Western democracies. Closer examination of the electorate of different right-wing party families in Western Europe uncovers, however, that there is no sign of a gender imbalance in the electorate of Christian Democratic parties. This article therefore examines male and female support for Christian Democratic parties in four countries (Belgium, Switzerland, Germany and the Netherlands). It firstly explores whether a modern gender gap in Christian Democratic support is obscured by lingering compositional differences in terms of religious belonging and practice and participation in the workforce. However, while compositional differences do significantly influence the relationship between gender and Christian Democratic voting, controlling for these differences does not expose a previously hidden modern gender gap. Secondly, the article, drawing on the modern gender gap literature, tests whether there are significant differences in the effect of structural, situational and cultural/attitudinal variables on male and female voters. The results show that apart from age, the effects of these predictors on Christian Democratic support do not vary by gender.