Political Implications of Gender Roles: A Review of the Literature

Abstract

This essay introduces the reader to the contemporary literature on gender roles and feminine behavior, including the major concepts, empirical findings, and social thought which have implications for political behavior and research. Gender roles as they relate to the psychology and activity of men and women, and their systemic cultural, economic, and legal ramifications provide an explanation and a basis for understanding political behavior, including recurrent women's protest movements. Contemporary writing contributes to building a non-androcentric and accurate body of knowledge regarding political woman, and it calls into question the ideology of the biological determinism of political activity. The literature surveyed has potential usefulness for public policy: an expansion of democracy is viable with the discernment and removal of barriers which hinder substantial proportions of women from achieving political leadership and hence participating in authoritative decision making and value allocation. A bibliography of major references is appended.

Gender Gap and Turnout in the 2003 Federal Elections

“…time, money, and civic skills, which are usually the product of an elevated socio-economic status. It has been long argued that women's resources, in particular their level of education and income, explained their lower levels of political participation (Ballmer-Cao 1978;Krauss 1974;Randall 1987;Welch 1977). This widely used explanation continues to be applied to various aspects of political participation (Schlozman et al 1994).…”

Political Parties: The Missing Variable in Women and Politics Research

“…Reviews of gender-related research (Bourque and Grossholtz 1974;Jaquette 1974Jaquette , 1976Kraus 1974;Boals 1975; Goot and Reid 1975;Shanley and Schuck 1975;Carroll 1979;Githens 1983Githens , 1984 are remarkably similar in their critique of the use of male criteria to evaulate women's role in politics.…”

Women in local politics

“…Hora and Lynn [1974] found that mothers displayed less political efficacy than nonmothers and that differences increased among women of higher social status. Since women have traditionally defined their stake in the community to be closely associated with their primary roles as wives and mothers, they have frequently defined their interest in the poh'tical system in terms of the educational process and social welfare-medical services, services for the elderly-as well as "cultural" activities [Boyd, 1968;Krauss, 1974;Karnig and Walter, 1976]. Socialization into limited roles seems an important factor in self-elimination of women from many types of political 46 Stuart and van Es activity.…”

“…Using their data, they contrast "the public office versus intraparty career styles" and the "selfserving (public office, power and influence) versus public-serving (concern for the party, its candidates and its program)" motivations of men and women as reflective of sex-role differences similar to those of family roles. The "expressive" or supportive functions of women, which reflect 48 Stuart and van Es traditional sex-role ideology, are as pervasive in political party activities as in other areas of men's and women's life styles [Boyd, 1968;Millet, 1969;Costantini and Craik, 1972;Krauss, 1974].…”

“…In this paper we will show that community development can contribute to enhancing the participation of women in community politics. Women's marginal involvement in local political decision making can be easily documented [Boyd, 1968;Prewitt, 1970, Costantini andCraik, 1972;Currell, 1974;Krauss, 1974;Tolchin and Tolchin, 1974;Hansen et al, 1976;Karnig and Walter, 1976]. While women are not significantly underrepresented at the polls, they are greatly underrepresented when it comes to holding political offices [Hansen, et al, 1976].…”