A Multi-dimensional Analysis of Political Participation and Gender in Europe: The Importance of Context as a Conditioning effect for Participatory Gender Inequalities

With inherent differences between men and women, participatory gender inequalities have long been a field of study. We distinguish between institutional and non-institutional forms of political participation, while we further analyse the cross-national gender differences within both. Most existing research recognises political participation as a multidimensional and context-dependent phenomenon. Therefore we analyse the role of context and we argue that different interpretations of context (i.e. economic, political or social) can affect the conditionality of the relationship between gender and political participation. Our analysis – based on a multilevel model and ESS data – indicates a favourable economic context reduces participatory gender inequalities, while a favourable social context only reduces participatory gender inequalities for non-institutional participation. The analysis of the political context brings about mixed evidence, with some variation depending on the indicator used. With this analysis we confirm the multi-dimensionality of participatory gender differences, as well as the importance of context as a conditioning effect.