Is there a Gender Difference in Energy Policy Preferences? Analyzing Legislative Speeches by Text Mining Approaches

The nature of substantive representation as well as the relationship between descriptive and substantive representation has been in the focus of research about politics and gender in recent years. The paper contributes to this research by analyzing legislators’ preferences in energy policy-making. There exists empirical evidence on gender differences in individual attitude and preferences concerning energy production technology and environmental concern. Studies reveal that compared to men women are more likely to oppose nuclear energy as well as fracking, they tend to support the development of renewable energy to a greater extend, and women are more concerned about the environment. Energy policy is not a classical ‘women’s issue’ but is characterized by conflicts concerning the priority order of its objectives: security of supply, environment and social issues. Legislative speeches in the context of energy policy initiatives in the United States are explored by text mining approaches in order to analyze if gender differences in energy policy preferences also occur in policy-making processes.