Citation

Fernández JJ, Jaime-Castillo AM, Mayrl D, Valiente C. Br. J. Sociol. 2021; 72(2): 252-269.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2021, London School of Economics and Political Science, Publisher John Wiley and Sons)

DOI

10.1111/1468-4446.12789

PMID

unavailable

Abstract

This manuscript examines the structural causes of the gender gap in political interest. In many countries, men are more interested in politics than women. Yet, in others, men and women prove equally interested. We explain this cross-national variation by focusing on the effects of societal religiosity. Since religion sustains the traditional gender order, contexts where societal religiosity is low undermine the taken-for-grantedness of this order, subjecting it to debate. Men then become especially interested in politics to try to reassert their traditional gender dominance, or to compensate for their increasingly uncertain social status. A secular environment thus increases political interest more among men than among women, expanding this gender gap. Using the World and European Values Survey, we estimate three-level regression models and test our religiosity-based approach in 96 countries. The results are consistent with our hypothesis.

Keywords

gender; political interest; quantitative analysis; religion; social values