Gender Gap in Policy Responsiveness in Spain

One of the cornerstones of representative democracies assumes that political elites implement citizens' demands and make them effective through public policies. Recent literature on unequal responsiveness has found that, despite this democratic ideal, politicians tend to listen more to the demands of wealthier citizens or higher social classes, to the detriment of working and poorer social classes. However, scholars have overlooked another important cause of political inequality: gender. This article fills this gap in the literature by examining the difference between men and women and their preferences for public policy. To do so, we use an analysis of survey data covering the entire period of Spanish democracy, with a threefold purpose. First, the article aims to show the differences in men's and women's political knowledge or response in surveys on different political issues. Second, we identify the issues on which there were the greatest differences between men and women in these years and how politicians responded to the demands of both sexes. Finally, we examined the intersectionality of preferences by not only making comparisons across genders, but also by including the political preferences of women and men according to education level and social class.