A democracy requires all social groups to engage. However, the gender gap in political leadership, and political self-efficacy remains persistent in Western democracies.
The discrepancies seem even greater if we consider the intersect of gender, social class and ethnicity. Research identifies that these differences begin in school, and are influenced by classroom dynamics. Ensuring equality within the democratic system requires that we address these differences at the time they take shape, during adolescence.
This workshop aims to examine gender-specific political socialisation from an intersectional perspective, as well as educational practices that reduce this gap. We welcome empirical and theoretical contributions.
There continues to be a gender gap on political knowledge, political efficacy and political interest within the adult population across most western countries (Fraile and de Miguel, 2019). These gender gaps are also observed among early adolescents in national studies (Abendschön & Tausendpfund, 2017; Arens and Watermann, 2017). Gender also seems to interact with other forms of social inequality when it comes to political outcomes (Matthieu, 2023). Moreover, national longitudinal studies show that the gap in political self-efficacy increases between the ages of 11-16 (García-Albacete and Hoskins forthcoming). Research also shows that different forms of citizenship education do not have a uniform effect for all groups of young people (Hoskins & Janmaat, 2019; Kavadias, Echeverria & Spruyt, 2021). Nevertheless, how to address these gender gaps through education is under explored (Bos et al. 2022).
This workshop is based on a new Horizon Europe research project, ‘Gender Empowerment through politics in classrooms’, that is developing and testing effective methods across Europe to reduce gender and intersection inequalities in political self-efficacy. Initial results from this research as well as external research findings will be explored.
- Abendschön, S. (2017). Children and Politics. American Behavioral Scientist, 61(2), 163–166. doi: 10.1177/0002764216689119.
- Arens, A.K. and Watermann, R. (2017) Political efficacy in adolescence: development, gender differences, and outcome relations, Developmental Psychology, 53(5): 933–48, doi: 10.1037/dev0000300.
- Bos, A.L. et al. (2022) This one’s for the boys: how gendered political socialization limits girls’ political ambition and interest, American Political Science Review, 116(2): 484–501, doi: 10.1017/S0003055421001027.
- Fraile, M. and de Miguel Moyer, C. (2022) Risk and the gender gap in internal political efficacy in Europe, West European Politics, 45(7): 1462–80, doi: 10.1080/01402382.2021.1969146.
- García-Albacete, G. and Hoskins, B. (forthcoming) The gender gap in political efficacy: the role of an open classroom climate in the development of inequalities, XXX.
- Hoskins, B., & Janmaat, J. G. (2019). Education, democracy and inequality: Political engagement and citizenship education in Europe. Palgrave Macmillan.
- Kavadias, D., Echeverria Vicente, N., & Spruyt, B. (2021). The margins of citizenship education in systems with a “broken ladder”. Status inequality and democratic outcomes of 10th grade students in Flanders. In N. Holtug & E. M. Uslaner (Eds.), National Identity and Social Cohesion (pp. 259–276). ECPR Press.
- Liu, L., Donbavand, S., Hoskins, B., Janmaat, J. G., & Kavadias, D. (2021). Measuring and Evaluating the Effectiveness of Active Citizenship Education Programmes to Support Disadvantaged Youth. Social Sciences, 10(10), Article 10. https://doi.org/10.3390/socsci10100394
- Matthieu, J. (2023). Where are we with closing the gender gap in internal political efficacy?. European Journal of Politics and Gender (preprint). https://doi.org/10.1332/251510821X16884720033706
1: At what age do socio-economic and gender based inequalities in political self-efficacy and participation develop?
2: How do differences in political self-efficacy and/or attitudes vary according to intersecting characteristics?
3: How and what are the underlying mechanisms behind those differences?
4: What is the (moderating) contribution of citizenship education in secondary schools to these differences?
5: What differences do we find according to the provided forms of citizenship education opportunities?
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GIRLS AS FUTURE POLITICAL LEADERS: FACTORS INFLUENCING ADOLESCENT GIRLS’ CONFIDENCE IN POLITICAL KNOWLEDGE AND SKILLS |
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