Digital Pathways or Digital Barriers? Gendered Political Participation in Germany

Political engagement, a cornerstone of democratic vitality, increasingly occurs online. While digital platforms promise to broaden participation, they may also reproduce entrenched inequalities. This paper examines whether the integration of online-only activities into political repertoires mobilizes previously disengaged citizens or reinforces existing patterns—and whether these dynamics are gendered. Drawing on a 2021 telephone survey of a representative German sample (n = 1,550), we employ latent class analysis (LCA) to identify person-centered repertoires across eleven offline, mixed, and online-only forms of activism. Our findings reveal two competing processes. First, consistent with the mobilization thesis, digital participation creates a distinct repertoire among men who otherwise exhibit minimal offline engagement. This “digitally engaged” group—comprising roughly 12% of men—primarily shares and comments on political content via social media, alongside activities easily performed online, such as donating and political consumerism. Second, in line with the reinforcement thesis, online activism is most prevalent among those already highly active across multiple forms of participation. These “activists” seamlessly incorporate online-only behaviors into broader repertoires, underscoring the cumulative nature of political engagement. Gendered patterns are striking. Among women, no new digital-only repertoire emerges. Instead, online participation is confined to the most activist women, reinforcing rather than disrupting existing inequalities. Nearly 38% of women remain fully disengaged, compared to 28% of men. Moreover, the gender gap is most pronounced in interactive online behaviors: men are significantly more likely to comment on political content, even after controlling for demographic and resource factors. These findings suggest that while digital spaces open new pathways for men, they do little to mobilize women and may exacerbate gendered divides in political voice. We conclude that the online civic square simultaneously expands and constrains democratic participation. Digital platforms offer opportunities for engagement but risk replicating offline hierarchies unless deliberate interventions address structural and cultural barriers to women’s inclusion. Our study contributes to theories of mobilization and reinforcement by demonstrating how gender shapes emergent repertoires in the digital era, with implications for equality in democratic participation.