Young and Gapped? Political Knowledge of Girls and Boys in Europe

Abstract

This article aims at exploring the gender gap in levels of political knowledge, with a focus on lower secondary school students in Europe. Using the International Civic and Citizenship Education Study 2009, we find that boys outperform girls when asked about facts; but girls demonstrate greater knowledge if asked to reason about a particular political matter. Part of the gender gap in political knowledge among adolescents appears to be a function of what is defined as knowledge. We argue for the need to include a greater variety of items to measure political knowledge, including both factual and analytical domains of knowledge

Political Knowledge of Children and the Role of Sociostructural Factors

“…As has been recently suggested by other students of political knowledge, knowledge and therefore also knowledge gaps can differ across political domains and areas (see Dolan, 2011; Fraile, 2014; Pereira, Fraile, & Rubal, 2015; Shaker, 2012; Stolle & Gidengil, 2010). This brings to mind older arguments of feminist theory stating that women do not know less about politics or are not less interested in politics than men, but they might be less knowledgeable and interested regarding the predominant male concept of politics with its focus on established politics (e.g., Meyer, 1992).…”

Who Knows More About Politics? A Dual Explanation for the Gender Gap

“…This is unfortunate given the persistence of the gender gap. Moreover, accurate measurement seems desirable given that political knowledge is an ongoing subset of the American National Election Study (ANES) and political knowledge items are routinely incorporated in surveys to predict a range of phenomena (e.g., Curran, Coen, Aalberg, & Iyengar, 2012;Jaeger, Lyons, & Wolak, 2017;Jung, Kim, & de Zuniga, 2011;Pereira, Faile, & Rubal, 2015;Valentino, Brader, Groenendyk, Gregorowicz, & Hutchings, 2011).…”

Türkiye'de Politik Okuryazarlık

“…Politik bilgi düzeyi, genel olarak çocuklar arasında da düşük olmasına rağmen yine cinsiyetler arası bir boşluk olduğu ve erkek çocukların hem politik farkındalık bakımından hem de politikayla ilgili olgusal sorularda daha iyi bir performans göstermeleri bakımından kız çocuklarından daha başarılı oldukları saptanmaktadır (Greenstein, 1965;van Deth, Abendschön ve Vollmar, 2011). Erkeklerin politik olgulara ilişkin bilgileri kızlardan daha fazla iken politik meseleler üzerine akıl yürütmede kızlar erkeklere göre daha iyidir (Pereira, Fraile ve Rubal, 2015).…”