A Longitudinal Analysis of Gender Differences in Political Participation in France: A Generational Story?

The changing role of women, from that of homemakers having a restricted role in public life to working-mothers and politically engaged citizens, has been one of the major social transformations in late 20th century Europe. This paper reflects on the persistence of participatory gender inequalities in political participation among younger generations in France. I assert that in the field of participatory gender differences there is an important lack of longitudinal analyses that take into account generational change. The objective of this paper is therefore a systematic longitudinal analysis of gender and generational differences in political participation in France during the period between 1981 and 2008. The research question of this study is twofold. First, what is the impact of generational replacement on participatory gender differences in political participation in France? Second, how can we explain lower levels of political participation of women from different generations from an individual-level perspective? My analysis, based on quantitative methods and longitudinal survey data from the European Values Study, shows that differences in gender for participating in demonstrations, petitions, and boycotts are generally eroding in France. Nevertheless, my results also indicate that gender and generational differences in various forms of political participation are conditioned by the type of participation considered. Consequently, these behavioural gender inequalities appear to be more complex than stipulated by the current literature.