Gender

Abstract

Decades of research have consistently shown that women have lower levels of political interest, political knowledge, sense of political efficacy, and with the exception of voting, lower rates of political participation in general. Women also talk less about politics, are less likely to attempt to persuade others to vote for their candidate, and are less effective than men when they do attempt to persuade. Women are also less likely to run for public office and are evaluated as less competent than their male opponents when they do run. While many differences in the social orientations of men and women are reflections of differences in the social positions and experiences into which they have been channeled, these particular patterns have remained even in the face of significant changes in the work, family, social, and political lives of women in the United States.

This chapter begins with a review of the existing of research on the impact of gender on political participation, political interest, political knowledge and efficacy, political communication and persuasion, and partisanship. It then moves to a discussion of the ways in which socializing agents differentially affect the political socialization of men and women. The chapter concludes with an examination of how the life cycle mitigates the impacts of both gender and those socialization agents, and considers some recent trends and predictions about the future.