Abstract
Women's political participation throughout the world is low relative to men's. Global survey data shows that while men and women often vote at equal rates, women in Asia, Latin America, Africa, and the Middle East are less likely to participate in political meetings or organizations, work for parties or candidates, attend protests or demonstrations, sign petitions, or contact officials. Furthermore, when women do participate in politics, politicians are often less responsive to them. Women are less likely to express their own preferences when they participate in politics, appear to make less informed and targeted demands, and are taken less seriously by political decision-makers.
To date, social scientists have largely focused on whether increasing information can increase the level and quality of political participation. Many of these studies have conceptualized information as a type of structural barrier that can be alleviated through individual provision, and we follow in this tradition. There is now a substantial body of evidence that increasing information at the individual level often does not by itself induce political participation, especially when it is delivered individually. The effects of information in mixed-gender campaigns may be smaller or possibly even negative in some contexts for women.
In this project, we suggest that one reason citizens and particularly women often do not respond to information about politics is that women also face binding psychological barriers. Women may not act on political information because they believe that it is not common, appropriate, or effective to do so. In other words, they may not act on information if they have low collective efficacy beliefs. This psychological barrier may be unaddressed or even exacerbated if gender identity and perceived group efficacy are not an explicit focus of an intervention that gives citizens additional resources to boost participation in politics.
Study ID sspp-2024-0016-v1
Authors
Lauren Young
Discipline
Political Science
Field
Comparative Politics, Political Psychology
Completion Time
20 Minutes
Close Date
Sept. 30, 2024
Citation
Lauren Young. 2024. "Legacy - Women’s action committees and local political participation." Social Science Prediction Platform. July 2.
https://socialscienceprediction.org/s/dfyzx6
Incentive Details
Incentive Type
Flat rate for participation
Incentive Size
$200.00
Recipient Pool
Incentives are lottery-based
Lottery Percentage
4.0%
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