Women’s action committees and local political participation

Study ID sspp-2024-0017-v1

General Details

Project Metaketa V: Women's Action Committees and Political Participation
Study ID sspp-2024-0017-v1
Study Title Women’s action committees and local political participation
Authors Lauren Young
Completion Time 20 Minutes
Close Date Sept. 30, 2024
Discipline Political Science
Field Comparative Politics, Political Psychology
Country Kyrgyzstan, Malawi, Nigeria, Pakistan, Vietnam
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.

Incentive Details

Incentive Type Flat rate for participation
Incentive Size $200.00
Recipient Pool Incentives are lottery-based
Lottery Percentage 4.0%

Citation
Lauren Young. 2024. "Women’s action committees and local political participation." Social Science Prediction Platform. July 9. https://socialscienceprediction.org/s/ce0cya

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