Mitigating the gender gap with citizenship education? The effect of civic learning on the relationship between gender and internal political efficacy across educational tracks.

Gender differences and inequalities are omnipresent in politics. It is by now well established that women participate less in institutionalized forms of politics compared to men, and are more actively involved in non-institutional forms of participation and civic engagement (Coffé & Boldenzahl 2010; Marien et al 2010). What is less clear, however, is whether these gender gaps also exist in relation to other “broader” political engagement indicators such as political interest and political efficacy, and if so, what accounts for them and what can be done to alleviate them (see Fraile & de Miguel Moyer 2021; Grasso & Smith 2021 for recent examples). In response, this paper revisits the gender gap in internal political efficacy, which is often understood as individuals’ assessments of their own abilities to engage with politics, and explores the pivotal role that schools and civic education play in mitigating persistent gender inequalities in internal political efficacy. More specifically, this paper investigates whether civic learning activities moderate the relationship between gender and internal political efficacy across educational tracks. The gender gap can be compensated, reproduced, or accelerated by civic learning, and different kinds of civic learning might result in different moderating effects. We also compare this relationship between tracks since pupils in different tracks are socialized in different gender roles (Heiniger & Imdorf, 2018; Smyth & Steinmetz, 2015). The moderating effect of civic learning on gender inequalities in internal political efficacy will be assessed based on a large dataset (N=4.073) among twelfth-grade students in Flanders (Belgium) collected to test the attainment targets of citizenship education. Flanders is an ideal case for testing this effect, as it has a highly differentiated school system and is, therefore, more likely to exhibit gender-stereotypical effects. We conduct a three-way interaction in a multilevel model to test the moderating effect of civic learning.