Here to stay? The role of gender norms in the persistent gender gap in political interest

In contrast to the continuous advancements towards gender equality in political participation and political representation, the gender gap in political interest remains largely unchanged: In almost every European country, women are less likely to express interest in (national) politics than men, with a large share of women describing themselves as entirely disinterested. Given the importance of political interest for political knowledge, involvement, and—through its impact on engagement in parties—women’s descriptive and substantive representation, the implications of the persistence of the gender gap are troubling. Yet, not all gender gaps are the same: While present in almost all countries and across different political systems, they differ substantially in size, indicating that, in addition to individual-level predictors, societal and political context also plays a role. However, research has only recently started to explore the role of social and political context for women’s political interest. Recent studies have documented the importance of overall levels of gender equality, as higher scores on the Gender Equality Index (GEI)—summarising equality across domains such as employment, health, and politics—are associated with smaller gender gaps in political interest. It remains unclear, however, which elements specifically make more equal societies conducive to women’s political interest. Building on the literature on political participation, it is plausible that the gender composition of the public sphere is important. When women see other women in positions of political or economic power, they are less likely to perceive politics as a men’s domain. In this paper, I argue that for the same reason, gender norms and stereotypes about women in politics should also matter: according to traditional gender roles, women are expected to focus on private life and the family while leaving politics (and interest in politics) to men. Consequently, in societies where strong traditional gender norms prevail, we should expect women’s interest in politics to be, on average, lower and the gender gap larger. However, few studies have examined this association between gender norms on the societal level and political interest empirically. This study examines the impact of gender norms on women’s and men’s political interest, using data from 36 countries included in the fifth round of the European Value Study (2017) combined with detailed (aggregated) data on gender norms. Controlling for traditional individual-level predictors, it focuses, first, on the impact of general and domain-specific (politics) gender norms on both, men’s and women’s political interest and tests if the effect of these norms is mediated through or moderated by individual gender-role attitudes. Second, it explores the homogeneity of the influence of gender norms across different groups of women, arguing that their impact is determined by women’s individual characteristics and life situations. By closely examining the impact of gender norms on political interest, this paper contributes to our understanding of contextual influences on political interest—while offering a grim prediction about the closing of the gender gap: Given the persistence of traditional gender norms, the gender gap in political interest seems to be also here to stay.