Voting at the intersection between social class, gender, and immigration origin: A population study of the Norwegian electorate

Although a vast body of research demonstrates the importance of gender, social class and immigration origin to systematic disparities in electoral participation, less is known about how these categories intersect. Using uniquely rich population data on the entire Norwegian electorate, both on background variables and electoral participation, this paper adds to the debate on how intersections between categories that signal advantage and disadvantage shapes political behaviour. By employing an intersectional design and approach to a quantitative study, this paper provides an alternative to single-axis studies that focus on one dimension of inequality. I do so by employing McCall’s inter-categorial approach to empirical intersectional studies, coupled with Bourdieu’s relational approach to class inequalities in political knowledge. Using the comparably egalitarian Norway as a case, I re-investigate the patterns that women vote more often than men, that first-generation immigrants vote less often than descendants of Norwegians, that cultural capital is positively associated with voting, at the intersections. More specifically, I use logistic regression to test these relationships. This brings to the fore how e.g., working class men who have immigrated from the global south differ to women of the same social class position and immigration origin in terms of voting or non-voting in parliamentary elections. Crucially, this adds to the ‘bigger picture’ by including intersections that, if not included, obfuscate multidimensional or complex patterns of political inequality and disadvantage that is highly relevant to policy and stakeholders.