Are Men and Women Mobilize Differently by Political Parties? The Consequences of Inequalities in Representation on the Gender Gap in Political Engagement

While a large literature exists investigating cross-national differences in party mobilization, little is known about whether men and women are mobilized equally by political parties. On the one hand, in many democracies, women are more likely to turnout than men, which might indicate that political parties and candidates are more likely to mobilize the former than the latter. On the other hand, recent studies have shown that political parties are more responsive to men’s policy preferences than women (Homola 2017), indicating that despite higher turnout from women, parties still view men as their electoral basis. Using the Comparative Study of Electoral Systems, I investigate the consequences of such inequalities on the gender gap in political engagement. In some countries women are more likely to be contacted while in other countries it is men who are more likely to be contacted. Traditionally, political parties would prefer representing men over women since the former are on average more politically active, wealthier, and more educated. While previous studies have shown the impact of competitiveness on mobilization (Rainey 2015) and on the mobilization of lower income voter (Anderson and Beramendi 2012), I demonstrate how these processes are gendered and that when political parties are less likely to mobilize women, the latter might be less likely to participate in politics at the mass-level but also at the elite-level.