Political Gender Gap Research Articles

Spatial regression analysis of political gender gap in Japan

AbstractInternationally, it has been repeatedly pointed out that the proportion of female members in the Diet and the local assemblies is extremely low in Japan. This is called a political gender gap. We analyzed the relationships between socioeconomic indicators and this political gender gap, and underlying causes using several spatial regression models. Prefectures are geographically connected; so, they can influence each other. Therefore, we incorporated geographical relationships between prefectures into the model. We found that a high proportion of women in a particular prefectural assembly was associated with a low proportion of women in adjacent prefectural assemblies. Thus, competition and repulsion exist between the adjacent prefectural assemblies. Furthermore, several series of analyses using spatial regression models showed that the impact of the political gender gap in a particular prefecture spread to adjacent prefectures, but not further. We found that considering prefectural spatial autocorrelations was important while examining the political gender gap, and previous studies that did not consider spatial autocorrelation might have been biased. However, here we were able to better explain the background of real-world phenomena occurring in the real world by applying spatial regression models.

Understanding Public Support for Policies Aimed at Gender Parity in Politics: A Cross-National Experimental Study

Abstract Across the globe, women are underrepresented in elected politics. The study's case countries of Australia (ranked 33), Canada (61) and the United States (66) rank poorly for women's political representation. Drawing on role strain and gender-mainstreaming theories and applying large-scale survey experiments, we examine public opinion on non-quota mechanisms to bolster women's political participation. The experimental design manipulates the politician's gender and level of government (federal/local) before asking about non-quota supports to help the politician. We find public support for policies aimed at lessening work–family role strain is higher for a woman politician; these include a pay raise, childcare subsidies and housework allowances. This support is amplified among women who are presented with a woman politician in our experiment, providing evidence of a gender-affinity effect. The study's findings contribute to scholarship on gender equality and point to gender-mainstreaming mechanisms to help mitigate the gender gap in politics.

Is Gender Discrimination Affected Women Status and Empowerment in India?

The development of any society depends on the status of women in the society. Fifty per cent of the World’s population comprises of women, in this male dominated society, women have always suffered. We need to make the women of our country strong socially, economically, psychologically and politically we need to tell the men of our country about their wrongdoings. In India Women’s political participation and representation has been affecting by the gender issues , but without active participation and well representation women will not certainly acquire higher positions. This paper aims to examine the reasons for gender gap in politics, and it also attempts to explain the participation of women as leader and as citizen, here researcher has adopted the qualitative method and data is collected from the journals, articles, published books and authentic websites

The Wall between Latinas and Latinos? Gender and Immigration Enforcement Attitudes among U.S. Latina/o Voters

AbstractDonald Trump’s surprising level of support among U.S. Latina/o voters in 2016 and his improved performance in the 2020 election posed a puzzle for Latina/o politics scholars given his stridently anti-immigrant agenda. Although scholars have acknowledged the political gender gap between Latinas and Latino men, few studies have outlined the theoretical basis or explored the empirical existence of gender differences in Latina/o immigration enforcement attitudes. Building on the Latina politics literature documenting Latinas’ greater engagement in solidarity work with immigrants and their greater desire for cultural transmission and the maintenance of pan-ethnic identity, I test two hypotheses. The first (the Latina/o gender hypothesis) postulates that Latinas will exhibit more liberal attitudes on matters of immigration enforcement relative to Latino men. The second (the immigrant identity hypothesis) postulates that Latinas are more likely to rely on their sense of commonality with immigrants in the formation of their immigration enforcement attitudes. Bivariate and multivariate analyses of the 2020 Collaborative Multiracial Postelection Survey support both hypotheses, which suggests not only that immigration attitudes among Latinas and Latino men are meaningfully distinct, but also that there are important structural differences underlying Latina/o beliefs in this policy area.

Strategies of Gender Mainstreaming in Provincial Election of Nepal

An election brings changes in society. Both politics and gender emphasize power, prestige, and privileges. The gender gap in politics indicates the level of participation during all aspects of the election. The gender gap in the electoral system proliferates complexity in gender inequality. Gender mainstreaming is a globally accepted means to reduce gender inequality. To examine the status and strategies of gender mainstreaming in provincial level first-past-the-post (FPTP) electoral system, this article is prepared as the title “Strategies of Gender Mainstreaming in Provincial Election of Nepal”. The analysis of this study is based on the report of provincial election published by the election commission, Nepal. A simple and systematic literature review is conducted to collect essential information to fulfill objectives. This study is based on the critical mass theory, critical act approach, and gender mainstreaming approach. There was a low level of gender mainstreaming at the provincial level FPTP electoral system in Nepal. All political parties should formulate and implement an effective strategy at the political level to increase gender mainstreaming in electoral activities. The government of Nepal must implement the Provision of sustainable development goals, the constitution of Nepal, and the international declaration of human rights regarding gender mainstreaming as soon as possible.

Political socialization, political gender gaps and the intergenerational transmission of left‐right ideology

AbstractWhile left and right are the main terms to distinguish political views in Western Europe, the family socialization of citizens has mainly been studied in terms of partisan preferences rather than identification with these ideological blocks. Therefore, this study investigates the intergenerational transmission of left‐right ideological positions in two European multiparty systems. To investigate expectations regarding gendered patterns in political socialization, ideological transmission between mothers, fathers, daughters and sons are analyzed, making use of German and Swiss household data. The results underline the relevance of the family in the transmission of political ideology in multiparty systems, showing high contemporary parent–child concordance in ideological positioning in line with classic work in political socialization. Moreover, the study demonstrates how the gender‐generation gap in political ideology is consequential for this process. Young women consistently place themselves on the left of men across all combinations of parental ideology, which indicates that the gender‐generation gap trumps other gendered patterns in intergenerational transmission. Consequently, daughters are less likely than sons to take over their parents’ rightist positions, while parent–son transmission is equally large on the left and the right. This also means that left‐leaning parents have a general advantage over right‐leaning parents in having their ideological identification reproduced by their daughters. The study highlights the importance of differentiating between the transmission of left‐ and right‐wing ideology in political socialization processes. Moreover, it demonstrates that the distinction by offspring gender is imperative when studying the intergenerational transmission of traits that display gender differences within and between parental and offspring generations. The findings point at the active role of especially female offspring in the political socialization process, as they seem to be more strongly impacted by influences outside the family that sustain generational processes of further gender realignment.

Gender and the 2018 U.S. Congressional Election

Nationally in the U.S. women started to identify more than men with the Democratic Party than the Republican Party in the 1960s and began to vote consistently more often than men for a Democratic rather than Republican presidential candidate beginning in 1980. The suspected causes of this political gender gap have tended to vary with shifting social and political contexts. One relative constant has been women’s greater preference for candidates who have expressed support for policies and legislation viewed as promoting economic justice. The current study employs regression analyses of data from online interviews of 1228 voters in five Midwestern states, three of which were won by the Republican candidate for president in 2016 and two by the Democratic candidate, to gauge the relative importance of several factors on gender gaps regarding party preference, opinion on then President Donald Trump, and voter choice in the 2018 Congressional Election. The results suggest that differences between women’s and men’s views on gun control, immigration, economic justice, religious diversity, and criminal justice reform largely accounted for the political gender gaps.

Strength in Numbers: How Women's Groups Close India's Political Gender Gap

AbstractIn India, there persists a striking gender gap in political participation. Women's political participation is important both on normative grounds of inclusion and because when women participate, politics changes. I develop a theoretical model of women's political behavior, arguing that women's lack of political participation is the result of the structure of women's political networks in patriarchal societies. I then evaluate the effect of expanding women's networks by leveraging a natural experiment that created as‐if random variation in access to women‐only credit groups. Participation in these groups had a significant and substantial impact on women's political participation—women's attendance at public meetings doubled. I provide suggestive evidence of three mechanisms underlying this effect: (1) larger networks, (2) increased capacity for collective action within networks, and (3) development of civic skills. These findings contribute to our understanding of how networks affect political behavior and underlie gendered inequalities in political participation.

Online cultural backlash? sexism and political user-generated content

ABSTRACT Prior research highlights substantial beneficial effects of political user-generated content (UGC) in society, such as diversifying political viewpoints, mobilizing the electorate, and fostering citizens’ civic engagement. However, important user asymmetries exist when creating political content. Gender, age, media uses, and skills gaps have been identified as key variables predicting UGC. This study addressed the political UGC gender gap from a political perspective. We build on previous theory about feminist media studies, political polarization, and cultural backlash theory to disentangle whether hostile sexism predicts UGC creation. Drawing on online survey data from four well-established democracies, we find that those individuals holding hostile sexist views are more likely to generate political content online. Further implications for democracy and the role of women in the digital sphere are discussed.

Toward Aligning with International Gender Goals? Analysis of the Gender Equality Landscape in Japan under the Laws on Women’s Economic and Political Participation and Leadership

Abstract Gender equality and women’s empowerment is taken as an important precondition and driving force for the achievement of all the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Despite its highly developed economy and democratic governance system, Japan’s record of gender equality, in particular, women’s political and economic leadership, has stalled for a number of years. Even after the promulgation of laws for promoting economic and political participation and leadership of women, namely, the Act on Promotion of Women’s Participation and Advancement in the Workplace (2015) and the Act on Promotion of Gender Equality in the Political Field (2018), Japan’s global ranking on gender equality was lowered further by a widening of the political gender gap and remaining dearth of female managers. This study analyses the effectiveness of the legal frameworks aimed at improving gender equality, through assessing their regulatory design, compliance, and implementation. It also highlights how gender norms underlining the international human rights law and international development agenda have affected the development and implementation of those legal frameworks. The paper concludes that the laws aimed to promote women’s leadership in the economic and political spheres have not fully performed to achieve intended goals because of their weak enforcement mechanism, the lack of strong political will as well as insufficient awareness raising and advocacy to bring about transformative changes of gendered practices embedded in social context and practice. The partnerships among global and local stakeholders including international organisations, governments, business, media, civil society, and people with diverse backgrounds are essential to provide the necessary momentum to drive the laws to work effectively on the ground, through transnational and local advocacy. Japanese society is standing at a critical juncture to advance equal voice in economic and political decision making, which is a core of democratic governance and sustainable development based on the principle of leaving no one behind.

Breaking the glass ceiling: the role of the UN and the EU in promoting women in politics

Politics has traditionally been reserved for men, meaning it has been very difficult‎ for women to enter at the highest level. The progress in gender equality‎ in politics has been uneven so far and significant differences exist among‎ states and regions. The male dominance in state politics has translated into the‎ international realm in international entities and multilateral political platforms‎ as well. Although these entities gradually introduced the principles of gender‎ equality and promoted an increased participation of women in political life in‎ their constituent states through key documents, they face the same problem –‎ how to ensure at least a formal and descriptive representation of women at the‎ highest level and how to translate stated or symbolic gender equality from key‎ documents into practice (symbolic to substantive representation). The aim of‎ this paper is to give an overview of the historical development of the international‎ framework for the equal participation of women in politics. Particularly,‎ this paper analyses how two international entities – the UN and the EU – contribute‎ to overcoming the gender-gap in politics, and whether their activities‎ have influenced an increased participation of women in politics (descriptive‎ representation).‎

Gender, Politics and Governance: Assessment of Women’s Attitude towards Political Participation in Ekiti South Senatorial District of Southwestern Nigeria

This paper seeks to examine the gender power relations in leadership in Nigeria by assessing the women’s attitude towards political participation at different levels of political activities and investigate the factors sustaining gender inequality in politics in Ekiti South Senatorial district in Southwestern Nigeria. The study adopted descriptive survey design. Quantitative and qualitative data were collected for the study. Results showed that women had poor attitude towards political activities (40.3%) and the women’s level of political participation at contesting for political posts was low (22%). However, inferences drawn from the analysis of the study showed that there were significant association between women’s membership in political parties (χ2=17.292, p<0.001), age (t=3.272, p=0.001) and occupation (χ2=13.592, p=0.004). The study identified inadequate finance, insecurity, gender roles, lack of policy implementation as challenges causing gender inequality in politics. The study concludes that improving women’s attitude as crucial for bridging the gender gap in politics.

Underrepresented outperformers: Female legislators in the Chinese Congress

This paper presents one of the first studies of the political behavior of female members of China's national legislature---the National People's Congress (NPC). Female legislators have consistently held about 20% of seats in the NPC in the past two decades because of a gender quota, but they sponsor about 44% of all legislative bills and more than half of bills relevant to women's rights and interests in the 12th NPC. Among sponsors, women on average sponsor more bills (4.8 bills) than men (3.1 bills). We propose three potential mechanisms that drive women's comparative productiveness: (i) women are more collaborative than their male colleagues; (ii) the gender quota and non-Communist Party quota produce a particularly active female group; and (iii) female leadership encourages female participation. We next analyze 2,365 bills submitted during the 12th NPC and show that female legislators are not only more engaged in women's issues; they are also disproportionately more active than men in the traditionally male-dominated'' areas including economics and finance, foreign affairs, rural affairs and environmental issues. Our findings suggest that a socialist legacy alone does not narrow the political gender gap; underrepresented regime outsiders (women) have strategically used the ``double-quota'' system and collaborated to carve out a place to amplify their voices, outperform insiders, and shape the policy debate.

The Gender Gap in Online News Comment Sections

Women are less likely than men to discuss or engage in politics. This study extends research on the gender gap in politics to an online context by exploring whether women are less likely to engage in political discussion online, whether this follows socialization theories of a private versus public sphere distinction, and whether perceptions of incivility help to explain these gender differences. Through a survey of commenters and comment readers based on a probability sample in the United States ( n = 965) and a survey of actual commenters and comment readers across 20 news sites ( n = 12,110), we find that women are less likely than men to comment online, particularly on state, national, or international topics. However, women are more likely than men to comment on local news. We also find that perceptions of incivility are related to commenting, although they do little to explain gender differences in commenting. Our results suggest that the gender gap in online political discussion is the product of women’s political socialization more so than the civility of the site.

The Gender Gap in Brazilian Politics and the Role of the Electoral Court

AbstractLike many other countries, Brazil has adopted gender quotas in elections for legislatures at all levels of the federation. However, Brazilian gender quotas have been ineffective at increasing women's participation in politics. Authors usually point to reasons related to the electoral system and party structure. This article analyzes a variable that is rarely considered: the role of the Electoral Court. We argue that the quality and intensity of the control exercised by an electoral court, when called upon to decide on the enforcement of the gender quota law, can influence the efficacy of this policy. We show that, in general, the Brazilian Superior Electoral Court tends to foster the participation of women in politics. However, based on two divides—between easy and difficult cases and between cases with low and high impact—we argue that in the realm of gender quotas, this court takes a rather restrained stance in those cases considered both difficult and with high impact.

Untangling the gender gap: nomination and representativeness in Turkish local elections

ABSTRACTThe gender gap in national and local politics is an important problem in numerous countries. Two explanations for the deficit experienced by female politicians relate to demand for women’s representation by political parties and by voters. We argue that the gender gap stems from party-based limitations in local politics. Women do not compete in local politics because relevant parties do not nominate them. We present original data on mayoral candidates who ran in the 2009 and 2014 Turkish local elections. Our findings show that women are less likely to be nominated for office and reasons for this gap originate from party choices rather than lack of electoral support for women.

Gender and Politics in Buenos Aires

This paper examines the persistent gender gap in electoral politics at the local level in Buenos Aires, Argentina. I argue that the combination of the division of political work and existing social norms regarding the separation of domestic chores contributes to women's political underrepresentation at the local level. Studying everyday politics in Buenos Aires, a clear division of political work between men and women was found. Only women were in charge of finding solutions to issues of domestic abuse and violence, and of taking care of children, the pregnant, and senior citizens. Using information from Buenos Aires municipalities, I document the gender gap in elected legislative and executive offices at the local level – as well as in non-elected offices within municipal cabinets. It was also found that the types of political work assigned to female activists and candidates reinforce existing stereotypes of women as mothers of the poor.

The hegemonic gender order in politics

PurposeDespite the ongoing increase of women in the top positions, they are still underrepresented in politics. The studies that primarily focus on women’s underrepresentation in politics neglect the role of gender as a category that structures and makes sense of social practices. The purpose of this paper is to investigate the mechanisms that regulate the contemporary gender order in politics through discourse analysis and the contribution of the critical feminist perspective.Design/methodology/approachThe study is based on 30 biographical interviews with Italian politicians and focuses on the account of their political experiences and on the meanings attributed to these.FindingsThe results of this paper underline the tendency to either absolve or blame women for gender inequality in politics through different interpretative repertoires: “Women’s disinterest toward politics,” “Politics as masculine context” and “Politics–family unbalance.” The analysis allowed to unravel the way in which the discursive practices create and reproduce the hegemonic gender order in politics.Research limitations/implicationsThe research is limited to 30 qualitative interviews, and so results cannot be generalized.Practical implicationsThe findings of this paper highlight the importance of exploring issues relating to the gender gap in politics and stress the need to implement actions to promote gender equality in politics.Originality/valueThe paper contributes to an understanding of women’s underrepresentation in politics and offers causes for reflection on a phenomenon that has profound implications for our society.

Stronger together: political ambition and the presentation of women running for office

ABSTRACT Does the presence of women candidates encourage other women to run for office? The extant literature is unclear on the question, with some studies pointing to evidence in the affirmative, but others indicating these effects may be null. We draw on the literature on role model effects in psychology to argue that an individual’s feelings about a particular candidate may affect whether or not that candidate is actually able to inspire that individual to run herself. Using campaign ads from Hillary Clinton’s 2016 campaign for the U.S. presidency, we find evidence that observing Clinton running for office does indeed increase the political ambition of some of her women supporters. At the same time, though, observing her run actually decreases ambition in other women. This effect is much greater than the effect of the context of the political ad, which does not seem to have a significant effect on women’s political ambition. Furthermore, because observing Clinton also decreases the ambition of her male supporters, the effect of her campaign may be to shrink the size of the political ambition gender gap.

Cohort Change in Political Gender Gaps in Europe and Canada: The Role of Modernization

This article finds firmer evidence than has previously been presented that men are more left-wing than women in older birth cohorts, while women are more left-wing than men in younger cohorts. Analysis of the European Values Study/World Values Survey provides the first systematic test of how processes of modernization and social change have led to this phenomenon. In older cohorts, women are more right-wing primarily because of their greater religiosity and the high salience of religiosity for left-right self-placement and vote choice in older cohorts. In younger, more secular, cohorts, women’s greater support for economic equality and state intervention and, to a lesser extent, for liberal values makes them more left-wing than men. Because the gender gap varies in this way between cohorts, research focusing on the aggregate-level gap between all men and all women underestimates gender differences in left-right self-placement and vote choice.