Left behind? : gender gaps in political engagement over the life course in twenty-seven European countries

Abstract

This article investigates gender differences in political involvement in twenty-seven countries across four life course stages: home-leaving, partnership formation, parenthood, and empty nest. Single country studies show that these life events can hamper women's political engagement, but whether this finding holds cross-nationally remains unclear. Using European Social Survey data, we show that across countries family intensive life course stages have a stronger negative effect on women's involvement than men's, but more on political interest, party identification and activity, than voting or demonstrating. Further, women's macro-level political representation only partially accounts for cross-national differences in life cycle effects on political involvement.