This paper investigates, on one hand, the extent to which male and female candidates differ in their adoption of digital campaign tools and, on the other hand, the gender gap across the European population in new media use. Furthermore, the paper aims to assess whether on-line campaigning by female candidates contributes to reducing the gender gap in political engagement. Specifically, it addresses whether gender differences are conditioned by age. We anticipate the effects of gender to be moderated by age, with the gender gap fading away across younger generations of users. Candidates’ implementation of digital campaign solutions is expected to follow a similar pattern. This contention is tested on multiple data sources to capture the diversity in the use of new technologies. We analyse the general population usage side by utilising data from Eurobarometer 76.3 (2011) and the candidate component by exploring the European Candidates Study 2009.
