Same Same But Different – Gender Differences and Gender Norms in Political Participation in Germany

In the scholarly debate on political participation, predominant research assumed that gender gaps would simply level out in the course of progressive modernization processes. Indeed, since the beginning of the 20th century, when the right to vote and stand for election for women was successively won in Western European democracies, significant progress has been made in education, employment as well as income and resulted in an increase of political representation and participation of women. Nevertheless, despite a comprehensive implementation of legal and formal equality, the distribution of resources in Western societies remains uneven between women and men. At the same time, although there are tendencies of convergence, recent studies confirm the continuing existence of political gender gaps (Coffé/Bolzendahl 2010). On the individual level, socioeconomic resources (Gidengil, Giles/Thomas 2008), gender-specific (political) socialization (Gidengil, O’Neill/Young 2014) and political attitudes (Arens/Watermann 2017) serve as popular explanatory approaches. What is missing from a feminist research perspective is a systematic consideration of predominant roles of women and men in society as a central component in explaining continuing gender differences in political participation. Traditional or egalitarian gender norms, which represent the extent of socially constructed gender hierarchy within a society, could either inhibit or facilitate political participation of women. On the one hand, it can be assumed that gender norms have a direct influence on the political participation of women. On the other hand, they moderate the positive linear relationship between socio-economic resources and women’s political participation. In this context, Germany presents a unique case to study due to the division during the Cold War and subsequent unification. The establishment of two ideologically different political systems in the Federal Republic of Germany (FRG) and the German Democratic Republic (GDR) produced also different gender cultures. While traditional gender roles were initially maintained in the FRG after World War II, the GDR claimed full implementation of equal rights for men and women from the beginning. This paper therefore examines gender differences in citizens’ political participation by adding gender norms as a substantial component to the existing explanatory models. Using data of the German General Social Survey (ALLBUS) from 1991 to 2016, the paper will firstly show that attitudes regarding gender norms differ substantially between the states of the former East and those of the former West Germany even almost thirty years after unification. Secondly, it will scrutinize the moderating effect of gender norms on the relationship between socio-economic resources and citizens’ political participation, while differentiating between high and low resource-demanding forms of political participation. Arens, Katrin/Watermann, Rainer (2017). Political Efficacy in Adolescence: Development, Gender Differences, and Outcome Relations. Developmental Psychology, 53(5), 933-948. Coffé, Hilde/Bolzendahl, Catherine (2010). Same Game, Different Rules? Gender Differences in Political Participation. Sex Roles, 62(5-6), 318-333. Gidengil, Elisabeth/Giles, Janine/Thomas, Melanee (2008). The Gender Gap in Self-Perceived Understanding of Politics in Canada and the United States. Politics & Gender, 4(4), 535-561. Gidengil Elisabeth/O’Neill, Brenda/Young, Lisa (2014). Her Mother's Daughter? The Influence Childhood Socialization on Women's Political Engagement. Journal of Women, Politics & Policy, 31(4), 334-355.