Good Girls Go to the Polling Booth, Bad Boys Go Everywhere

Abstract

Participation research routinely reveals a gender gap with regard to most forms of political engagement. In the recent literature, differences in the availability of resources and civic skills are usually invoked as an explanation for this pattern. This theory focuses primarily on adult behavior and has not as yet been investigated among young people, for whom we can assume that resources are distributed more equally. In this article, we examine gender differences in the anticipation of political participation among American fourteen-year-olds, building on the 1999 International Association for the Evaluation of Educational Achievement study (n = 2,811). First, the results show that girls at this age mention even more actions they intend to engage in than do boys, so clearly the gender gap with regard to the level of participation has not yet emerged at that age. Second, we observe distinct patterns with regard to the kinds of actions favored, with girls being drawn more towards social movement-related forms of participation than boys, and with boys favoring radical and confrontational action repertoires as compared to girls. The results are important for the reconceptualization of the concept of political participation as well as for theories that explain the gender gap.

Adolescent moral motivations for civic engagement: Clues to the political gender gap?

“…The political gap among adults is in part explained by social and institutional factors (Hooghe & Stolle, 2004), but our findings suggest that motivational factors may play a role as well. Our interview findings suggest that being driven to act on one's values is much more likely to motivate highly engaged and committed participation in civic activity than being motivated by a desire to help.…”

“…While this helping motivation can be sustained, it is not consistent with developing political capacities. Instead, an individual who is strongly motivated to help others will likely be drawn over time to domains where they can have a greater impact, such as in supporting a family or providing service to the community (Delli Carpini & Keeter, 2005;Hooghe & Stolle, 2004), or like Myrtha, into humanizing activities.…”

“…However unlike the gender differences seen in adults, girls are also more likely to participate in political activities, such as student government, and are leaders of school-based organizations at about twice the rate of boys (Eccles & Barber, 1999). In electoral politics, 15-to 25-year-olds show very little gender difference in their participation (Jenkins, 2005), and girls express significantly more intention to engage in politics as adults (Hooghe & Stolle, 2004).…”

“…underrepresented in political leadership and maintain a relative distance from influential political activities (Hooghe & Stolle, 2004).…”

Being a Young Citizen in Estonia: An Exploration of Young People’s Civic and Media Experiences

“…For example, one could ask why playing at a music festival is understood as civic participation. However, civic participation includes the aim to change or preserve certain features of a political community (Adler and Goggin, 2005;Bucy and Gregson, 2001;Hooghe and Stolle, 2004). In this sense, the will to change or establish counter-narratives to a perceived failure to include marginalised groups is the focus of civic participation in the case of the music festival.…”