Gender Gaps in Political Participation over the Life Course in 30 European Countries

This article takes a comparative approach to analyze the political participation of women and men at different stages of the life course in European countries with different gender and welfare arrangements. Indeed, previous studies have shown that women tend to be less politically active than men, and single country studies have shown that family roles and maternal responsibilities act as constraints to women’s political participation. In particular, having young children is shown to strongly limit women’s participation compared to men’s, while gender differences tend to be smaller among singles, childless couples and parents of older children. However, European countries differ in the extent to which parents share the care of their children, thus begging the question of whether gender differences in political participation over the life course vary by country. Specifically, this article argues that in countries characterized by more gender egalitarian work-family arrangements, gender gaps in political participation will be narrower at all stages of the life course. In contrast, differences in the political activism of women and men will be more evident in countries characterized by gender inequalities in work and care. We apply multilevel models to European Social Survey data (Waves 1 to 7) for 30 countries to investigate these research questions. Preliminary result suggest that family roles do act as constraints to participation, especially for mothers of young children. However, such effect is much more evident among mothers in Southern and Continental countries compared to northern and Eastern European ones, thus suggesting that a more egalitarian division of family responsibilities can enhance women’s political participation.