Do Men and Women Have Different Policy Preferences in Africa? Determinants and Implications of Gender Gaps in Policy Prioritization

Abstract

Policies designed to increase women’s representation in Africa are often motivated by the assumption that men and women have different policy preferences. This article finds that gender differences in policy priorities are actually quite small on average, but vary significantly across policy domains and countries. The study leverages this variation to show that the economic and social empowerment of women influences the size of gender gaps in the prioritization of two important domains. In particular, women’s participation in the labor force – an indicator of economic empowerment – narrows the gender gap in the prioritization of infrastructure investment and access to clean water, while social vulnerability widens the gap on prioritizing infrastructure investment. Finally, the article shows that the places where women and men have the most divergent policy preferences – and thus where formal representation is most important – are precisely the places where women are currently the most poorly represented and least active in formal politics.

Citizen political knowledge and accountability: Survey evidence on devolution in Kenya

“…In addition, by showing how exposure to public services conditions political knowledge and perception of government performance, this article contributes to the literatures on how public goods and services cultivate civic attitudes and tax morale among citizens (Ali, Fjeldstad, & Sjursen, 2014;Blimpo et al, 2018;Bodea & Lebas, 2016;Campbell, 2003;Evans, Holtemeyer, & Kosec, 2019;Hunter & Sugiyama, 2014;Mettler, 2005;Prichard, 2015). Finally, the documentation of gendered exposure to government services adds to the literature on how gender mediates political knowledge (Dolan, 2011;Stolle & Gidengil, 2010) and policy preferences (Gottlieb, Robinson, & Grossman, 2016).…”

Representative bureaucracy, role congruence, and Kenya's gender quota

“…This is in part to address new findings that, in Kenya, local public sector employment is dependent on local education levels (Simson, 2018). We also include the difference between, the percentage of employed men and employed women in the sublocation to account for the gender gap in employment (Dometrius & Sigelman, 1984;Gottlieb et al, 2016).…”

“…In this Special Issue, Opalo (2020) also examines the ramifications of Kenya's new constitution. 14 Gender is not a salient cleavage in Kenya, and as in many other sub-Saharan African countries, policy preferences do not vary substantially by gender (Gottlieb, Grossman, & Robinson, 2016). The new constitution was passed in the wake of Kenya's deadly 2007/2008 interethnic election violence.…”

Direct Democracy and Women's Political Engagement

“…Women's lower propensity to engage in politics raises normative concerns, and it has important policy consequences. Given that men and women tend to hold divergent political preferences (Alvarez and McCaffery ; Gottlieb, Grossman, and Robinson ), lower levels of political participation among women can produce policies that are systematically biased against women's preferences, which in turn can reinforce gender inequalities in social and economic domains.…”