Gender Equality in Family and Attitudes to Democracy

Is gender equality in the family during one’s formative years associated with greater support for liberal democracy? Despite a strong body of scholarship on political socialization that links political discussions at home and parental partisanship with the formation of political attitudes, we know surprisingly little about whether and how everyday family practices, such as household task distribution between the parents, shape democratic attitudes. Not least, this gap is due to the absence of survey data that would combine questions about one’s childhood experiences and questions about democratic attitudes. The proposed study fills both gaps. Using newly collected nationally representative survey data spanning eight European countries that combines modules on childhood experiences and political attitudes, the study tests the hypothesis that gender-equal distribution of household tasks is associated with greater support for liberal democracy. As such, the proposed paper connects to major RQs driving this workshop, in particular the pathways to democratic resilience and the constellations driving them, as well as the conditions for preserving democracy from a gendered perspective. By generating new insights into building democratic resilience, the study makes key contributions to debates in political science and political sociology by deepening our understanding of the mechanisms that shape support for democracy. Moreover, it advances feminist research by offering one of the first micro-level empirical tests of the link between gender equality in the family and democracy. Finally, it also speaks to gender studies and sociological research on (the effects of) the division of labor within households across geographical and political contexts.