Hostname: page-component-7c8c6479df-hgkh8 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-03-17T11:01:51.027Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

Mind the Gender Gap: An Experiment on the Influence of Self-Efficacy on Political Interest

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  23 March 2016

Jessica Robinson Preece*
Affiliation:
Brigham Young University

Extract

In a healthy democracy, one would expect to see roughly equal levels of political participation among men and women. Yet—aside from voting—women are significantly less politically engaged than men at both the mass and elite levels (Atkeson 2003; Bennett and Bennett 1989; Burns, Schlozman, and Verba 2001; Lawless and Fox 2010; Verba, Burns, and Schlozman 1997). The political engagement gender gap suggests that some form of “adverse selection” is at play in the system (Mansbridge 1999, 632). This takes many forms: women have traditionally had less access to resources, more burdensome family obligations, and fewer relevant role models. However, emerging research demonstrates that even when accounting for many of these factors, women remain less engaged with politics than similarly situated men. This suggests that changing these structural factors is not enough to close the gender gap in political engagement—we must address the “gendered psyche” that prevents many women from fully participating in civic life (Lawless and Fox 2010, 12).

Type
Research Article
Copyright
Copyright © The Women and Politics Research Section of the American Political Science Association 2016 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

REFERENCES

Atkeson, Lonna Rae. 2003. “Not All Cues Are Created Equal: The Conditional Impact of Female Candidates on Political Engagement.” The Journal of Politics 65 (4): 1041–61.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Atekson, Lonna Rae, and Rapoport, Ronald B.. 2003. “The More Things Change the More They Stay the Same: Examining Gender Differences in Political Attitude Expression, 1952–2000.” Public Opinion Quarterly 67 (4): 495521.Google Scholar
Bandura, Albert. 1982. “Self-Efficacy Mechanism in Human Agency.” American Psychologist 37 (2): 122–47.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Barabas, Jason, Jerit, Jennifer, Pollock, William, and Rainey, Carlisle. 2014. “The Question(s) of Political Knowledge.” American Political Science Review 108 (4): 840–55.Google Scholar
Bennett, Linda L. M., and Bennett, Stephen Earl. 1989. “Enduring Gender Differences in Political Interest: The Impact of Socialization and Political Dispositions.” American Politics Research 17 (1): 105–22.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Berinsky, Adam, Huber, Gregory, and Lenz, Gabriel. 2012. “Evaluating Online Labor Markets for Experimental Research: Amazon.com's Mechanical Turk.” Political Analysis 20: 351–68.Google Scholar
Beyer, Sylvia. 1990. “Gendered Differences in the Accuracy of Self-Evaluations of Performance.” Journal of Personality and Social Psychology 59 (5): 960–70.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Beyer, Sylvia, and Bowden, Edward M.. 1997. “Gender Differences in Self-Perceptions: Convergent Evidence from Three Measures of Accuracy and Bias.” Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin 23 (2):157–72.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Burns, Nancy, Schlozman, Kay, and Verba, Sidney. 2001. The Private Roots of Public Action: Gender, Equality, and Political Participation. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.Google Scholar
Burt-Way, Barbara J., and Kelly, Rita Mae. 1992. “Gender and Sustaining Political Ambition: A Study of Arizona Elected Officials.” Political Research Quarterly 45 (1): 1125.Google Scholar
Bylsma, Wayne H., and Major, Brenda. 1992. “Two Routes to Eliminating Gender Differences in Personal Entitlement: Social Comparisons and Performance Evaluations.” Psychology of Women Quarterly 16 (2): 193200.Google Scholar
Campbell, David E., and Wolbrecht, Christina. 2006. “See Jane Run: Women Politicians as Role Models for Adolescents.” The Journal of Politics 68 (2): 233–47.Google Scholar
Craig, Stephen C., Niemi, Richard, and Silver, Glenn E.. 1990. “Political Efficacy and Trust: A Report on the NES Pilot Study Items.” Political Behavior 12 (3): 289314.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Delli Carpini, Michael X., and Keeter, Scott. 1996. What Americans Know about Politics and Why It Matters. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press.Google Scholar
Delli Carpini, Michael X., and Keeter, Scott. 2000. “Gender and Political Knowledge.” In Gender and American Politics: Women, Men, and the Political Process, 2nd ed., ed. Tolleson-Rinehard, Sue and Josephson, Jyl J.. Armonk, NY: M.E. Sharpe.Google Scholar
Doherty, Leanne. 2011. “Filling the Female Political Pipeline: Assessing a Mentor-Based Internship Program.” Journal of Political Science Education 7 (1): 3447.Google Scholar
Dolan, Kathleen. 2011. “Do Women and Men Know Different Things? Measuring Gender Differences in Political Knowledge.” The Journal of Politics 73 (1): 97107.Google Scholar
Dow, Jay K. 2009. “Gender Differences in Political Knowledge: Distinguishing Characteristics-Based and Returns-Based Differences.” Political Behavior 31 (1): 117–36.Google Scholar
Fox, Richard L., and Lawless, Jennifer L.. 2010. “If Only They'd Ask: Gender, Recruitment, and Political Ambition.” The Journal of Politics 72 (2): 310–26.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Fox, Richard L., and Lawless, Jennifer L.. 2011. “Gendered Perceptions and Political Candidacies: A Central Barrier to Women's Equality in Electoral Politics.” American Journal of Political Science 55 (1): 5973.Google Scholar
Fox, Richard L., and Lawless, Jennifer L.. 2014. “Uncovering the Origins of the Gender Gap in Political Ambition.” American Political Science Review 108 (3): 499519.Google Scholar
Furnham, Adrian, and Rawles, Richard. 1995. “Sex Differences in the Estimation of Intelligence.” Journal of Social Behavior and Personality 10 (3): 741.Google Scholar
Gidengil, Elisabeth, Giles, Janine, and Thomas, Melanee. 2008. “The Gender Gap in Self-Perceived Understanding of Politics in Canada and the United States.” Politics & Gender 4 (4): 535–61.Google Scholar
Greenlee, Jill S., Holman, Mirya R., and VanSickle-Ward, Rachel. 2014. “Making It Personal: Assessing the Impact of In-Class Exercises on Closing the Gender Gap in Political Ambition.” Journal of Political Science Education 10 (1): 4861.Google Scholar
Hannagan, Rebecca J., Littvay, Levente, and Popa, Sebastian Adrian. 2014. “Theorizing Sex Differences in Political Knowledge: Insights from a Twin Study.” Politics & Gender 10 (1): 89114.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kanthak, Kristin, and Woon, Jonathan. 2015. “Women Don't Run? Election Aversion and Candidate Entry.” American Journal of Political Science 59 (3): 595612.Google Scholar
Karp, Jeffrey A., and Banducci, Susan A.. 2008. “When Politics Is Not Just a Man's Game: Women's Representation and Political Engagement.” Electoral Studies 27 (10): 105–15.Google Scholar
Karpowitz, Christopher F. 2006. “Having a Say: Public Hearings, Deliberation, and Democracy in America.” Ph.D. diss., Princeton University.Google Scholar
Karpowitz, Christopher F., and Mendelberg, Tali. 2014. The Silent Sex: Gender, Deliberation, and Institutions. Princeton: Princeton University Press.Google Scholar
Kerber, Linda. 1998. No Constitutional Right to Be Ladies: Women and the Obligations of Citizenship. New York: Hill and Wang.Google Scholar
Michael, Kimmel, Hearn, Jeff, and Connell, R. W., eds. 2004. Handbook of Studies on Men and Masculinities. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications.Google Scholar
Kling, Kristen C., Hyde, Janet Shibley, Showers, Carolin J., and Buswell, Brenda N.. 1999. Gender Differences in Self-Esteem: A Meta-Analysis . Psychological Bulletin 125 (4): 470.Google Scholar
Lawless, Jennifer L., and Fox, Richard L.. 2010. It Still Takes A Candidate: Why Women Don't Run for Office. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lizotte, Mary-Kate, and Sidman, Andrew H.. 2009. “Explaining the Gender Gap in Political Knowledge.” Politics & Gender 5 (2): 127–51.Google Scholar
Mansbridge, Jane. 1999. “Should Blacks Represent Blacks and Women Represent Women? A Contingent ‘Yes.’The Journal of Politics 61 (3): 628–57.Google Scholar
McGlone, Matthew, Aronson, Joshua, and Kobrynowicz, Diane. 2006. “Stereotype Threat and the Gender Gap in Political Knowledge.” Psychology of Women Quarterly 30 (4): 392–98.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Mendelberg, Tali, Karpowitz, Christopher F., and Oliphant, Baxter. 2014. “Gender Inequality in Deliberation: Unpacking the Black Box of Interaction.” Perspectives on Politics 12 (1): 1844.Google Scholar
Mondak, Jeffery J. 1999. “Reconsidering the Measurement of Political Knowledge.” Political Analysis 8 (1): 5782.Google Scholar
Mondak, Jeffery J., and Anderson, Mary R.. 2004. “The Knowledge Gap: A Reexamination of Gender-Based Differences in Political Knowledge.” The Journal of Politics 66 (2): 492512.Google Scholar
Morrell, Michael E. 2003. “Survey and Experimental Evidence for a Reliable and Valid Measure of Internal Political Efficacy.” Public Opinion Quarterly 67 (4): 589602.Google Scholar
Ondercin, Heather L., Garand, James C., and Crapanzano, Lauren E.. 2011. “Political Learning during the 2000 U.S. Presidential Election: The Impact of the Campaign on the Gender Gap in Political Knowledge.” Electoral Studies 30 (4): 727–37.Google Scholar
Pajares, Frank. 2002. “Gender and Perceived Self-Efficacy in Self-Regulated Learning.” Theory into Practice 41 (2): 117–25.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Peace, Bob. 2002. Men and Gender Relations. Croydon, Victoria: Tertiary Press.Google Scholar
Petrides, K. V., and Furnham, Adrian. 2000. “Gender Differences in Measured and Self-Estimated Trait Emotional Intelligence.” Sex Roles 42 (5–6): 449–61.Google Scholar
Pew Research Center. 2013. “Women Make Significant Gains in the Workplace and Educational Attainment, but Lag in Pay.” March 8. http://www.pewresearch.org/daily-number/women-make-significant-gains-in-the-workplace-and-educational-attainment-but-lag-in-pay/ (accessed December 13, 2014).Google Scholar
Preece, Jessica, and Stoddard, Olga. 2015. “‘Why Women Don't Run: Experimental Evidence on Gender Differences in Political Competition Aversion.” Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization 117: 296308.Google Scholar
Rios, Desdamona, Stewart, Abigail J., and Winter, David G.. 2010. “‘Thinking She Could Be the Next President’: Why Identifying with the Curriculum Matters.” Psychology of Women Quarterly 34 (3): 328–38.Google Scholar
Roberts, Tomi-Ann, and Nolen-Hoeksema, Susan. 1994. “Gender Comparisons in Responsiveness to Others’ Evaluations in Achievement Settings.” Psychology of Women Quarterly 18 (2): 221–40.Google Scholar
Sapiro, Virginia. “Private Costs of Public Commitments or Public Costs of Private Commitments? Family Roles versus Political Ambition.” American Journal of Political Science 26 (2): 265–79.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Schlozman, Kay Lehman, Burns, Nancy, and Verba, Sidney. 1994. “Gender and the Pathways to Participation: The Role of Resources.” The Journal of Politics 56 (4): 963–90.Google Scholar
Silbermann, Rachel. 2015. “Gender Roles, Work-Life Balance, and Running for Office.” Quarterly Journal of Political Science 10 (2): 123–53.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Stolle, Dietlind, and Gidengil, Elisabeth. 2010. “What Do Women Really Know? A Gendered Analysis of Varieties of Political Knowledge.” Perspectives on Politics 8 (1): 93109.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Thomas, Melanee. 2012. “The Complexity Conundrum: Why Hasn't the Gender Gap in Subjective Political Competence Closed?Canadian Journal of Political Science 45 (2): 337–58.Google Scholar
Verba, Sidney, Burns, Nancy, and Schlozman, Kay Lehman. 1997. “Knowing and Caring about Politics: Gender and Political Engagement.” The Journal of Politics 59 (4): 1051–72.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Wolak, Jennifer, and McDevitt, Michael. 2010. “The Roots of the Gender Gap in Political Knowledge in Adolescence.” Political Behavior 33 (3): 505–33.Google Scholar
Wolbrecht, Christina, and Campbell, David E.. 2007. “Leading by Example: Female Members of Parliament as Political Role Models.” American Journal of Political Science 51 (4): 921–39.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Supplementary material: PDF

Preece supplementary material

Preece supplementary material 1

Download Preece supplementary material(PDF)
PDF 51.1 KB