Gendering Voting, Voters and Candidates in Representative Democracies

Abstract

This panel examines how gendered and intersecting power relations shape voting behaviour, political participation and representation in contemporary representative democracies. The papers analyse how gender interacts with race, age, sexuality, and ideology to structure who participates in politics and how, how political actors are perceived and whose interests are represented. Empirically, the panel discusses a range of European contexts, including Sweden, Italy, Finland, Belgium (Flanders) and Germany. The papers address diverse topics: the political participation of Romani women under racialised and gendered opportunity structures; citizens’ ideological stereotyping of candidates based on gender, age, and ethnicity; voting as an avenue of gendered performance that is particularly pertinent for men; the mechanisms linking women’s descriptive and substantive representation in local government; and the role of gender-related issues in the ‘youth gender gap’ in voting behaviour. Theoretically, the panel engages with debates about intersectionality and racialisation, political opportunity structures, political masculinity, gender stereotyping, and representation theory. Methodologically, it combines qualitative interviews, survey experiments, panel surveys, meta-analysis, and observational data.

Title	Details
The ‘Man Question’ in Voting Behaviour	View Paper Details
Why Do Women Represent Women? Intrinsic Mechanisms and Political Context	View Paper Details
Racialization, Gender, and Political Participation: A Comparative Study of Romani Women in Sweden and Italy	View Paper Details