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The Cultural Sources of the Gender Gap in Voter Turnout

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  31 January 2020

Ruth Dassonneville Open the ORCID record for Ruth Dassonneville [Opens in a new window]  and
Filip Kostelka Open the ORCID record for Filip Kostelka [Opens in a new window]
Ruth Dassonneville*
Affiliation:
Department of Political Science, University of Montreal, Canada
Filip Kostelka
Affiliation:
Department of Government, University of Essex, Colchester, United Kingdom
*
*Corresponding author. E-mail: ruth.dassonneville@umontreal.ca
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Abstract

Recent publications argue that the traditional gender gap in voting has decreased or reversed in many democracies. However, this decrease may apply only to some types of elections. Building on prior studies, this article hypothesizes that although women participate at the same or higher rates than men in national elections, they participate less in supranational elections. The authors investigate this possibility empirically by analyzing the evolution of the gender gap in voter turnout in elections to the European Parliament (EP). The article makes three important contributions. First, it shows the presence and stability of the traditional gender gap in EP elections. Secondly, it finds that gender differences in political interest are the main source of this gender gap. Thirdly, these gender differences in political interest are, in turn, context dependent. They are strongly associated with cultural gender differences, which are captured through differences in boys’ and girls’ maths scores.

Keywords

gender gapvoter turnoutEuropean Parliament electionsdescriptive representationcultural gender differences
Type
Article
Information
British Journal of Political Science , Volume 51 , Issue 3 , July 2021 , pp. 1040 - 1061
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2020

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