The Gender Gap in Discursive Participation

• In Event: Technological and Social Change in Canadian Politics and Governance

Abstract

Although women and men enjoy formally equal political rights in today’s democracies, there is an ongoing gap in the degree to which they make use of these rights, with women participating at lower rates than men on many measures of political engagement. The gender gap in political participation is problematic because gendered asymmetries in participation entail collective outcomes that are less attentive to women’s interests and preferences. And while much research has been done on the extent and determinants of the gender gap in conventional political engagement (such as voting, contacting politicians, etc.) and certain newer forms of engagement (such as boycotting or buycotting), almost no work has been done on the gender gap in discursive participation, which includes face-to-face group deliberation, every day political talk, and online communication about matters of collective concern. Do women participate in discursive politics at the same rate as men? And does gender intersect with other identities and ascribed attributes – such as ethnicity or socioeconomic status – to impact discursive participation in important ways? I use data from the Canada Election Studies (2015) to answer these questions. I find that women participate significantly less than men in different forms of discursive participation, and that ethnicity may intersect with gender in some important ways. However, other structural factors – such as income, education, and working for pay – have negligible effects on women’s discursive participation. I find that social and political capital are more important for boosting discursive participation, although they do not completely close the gender gap in all forms of discursive engagement.

Author

• Edana Beauvais, University of British Columbia