Women and political activism: how can we help women to climb the greasy pole?

Dr Rosie Campbellr.campbell@bbk.ac.uk

Twitter: @Rosiecampb

Do women participate less than men?

Partisan politics Civic engagement • Cause oriented activities • Voluntary work• Education, child and health

related groups

MPs

CouncilorsMembers Supporters

Voters

British Citizenship survey 2007Figure 1: Voluntary group membership by sex

N=14087

Children's e

ducation***

Children's a

ctiviti

es**

Education fo

r adults

***

Sports

/exe

rcise

***

Religion***

The Elderly***

Health, so

cial w

elfare***

Safety,

First

Aid

The Environment, A

nimals

Justi

ce an

d Human Righ

ts

Loca

l community

*

Citizens’ G

roups*

*

Hobbies**

Trade Union***

0

5

10

15

20

25

30

35

40

Menwomen

Perc

enta

ge

***Significant at the 0.001 level, **significant at the 0.01 level, *significant at the 0.05 level, Chi2 tests.

Figure 2: Type of unpaid help given to a group, club or organisation by sex

N=14087

Raising o

r han

dling m

oney***

Lead

ing/on co

mmittee**

Organisi

ng/running a

n event

Visiting p

eople***

Befriending /

mentorin

g*

Giving a

dvice***

Admin work*

Provid

ing tran

sport*

**

Representing*

Campaig

ning

Other p

ractica

l help***

0

5

10

15

20

25

30

MenWomen

Perc

enta

ge

05

1015202530

MenWomen

Perc

enta

ge

Figure 3: Participation in politics by sex

N=14087

Belgium

Bulgaria

Switz

erlan

d

Cypru

s

Czech Rep

ublic

German

y

Denmark

Estonia

Spain

Finlan

d

United Kingd

omIre

land

Israe

l

Icelan

d

Netherl

ands

Norway

Poland

Portuga

l

Russian

Federa

tion

Swed

en

Slove

nia

Slova

kia

Kosovo

0.0%

5.0%

10.0%

15.0%

20.0%

25.0%

30.0%

WomenMen

Figure 4: Respondents to the European Social Survey 2012 who had contacted a politician by sex

N=44102

Belgium

Bulgaria

Switz

erlan

d

Cypru

s

Czech Rep

ublic

German

y

Denmark

Estonia

Spain

Finlan

d

United Kingd

omIre

land

Israe

l

Icelan

d

Netherl

ands

Norway

Poland

Portuga

l

Russian

Federa

tion

Swed

en

Slove

nia

Slova

kia

Kosovo

0.0%

10.0%

20.0%

30.0%

40.0%

50.0%

60.0%

WomenMen

Figure 5: Respondents to the European Social Survey 2012 who had worn a campaign badge or sticker in the last 12 months by sex

N=44102

Engagement with politics Political interest Political knowledge •Women routinely found to

be less interested in formal politics• But it depends how you ask:

Less interested in partisan politics and foreign policy more interested in local politics, health and education

• Women generally found to be less knowledgeable • But it depends how knowledge

is measured (Guessing/risk taking, useful knowledge, gendered knowledge)

Political talk

• Women less interested in political talk (Verba et al 1997) • Women often talk with women and men with men (Huckfeldt and

Sprague 1995)• Women’s knowledge is often under-estimated (Mendez and Osborn

2010)• Women sometimes exclude themselves fearing that they will not be

persuasive (Miller et al 1999)• Focus group research suggests that women more often talk about

politics through a family/community lens rather than an abstract ideological or national lens.

Figure 6: Average general interest in politics by sex and age group

Figure 7: Average interest in domestic politics, by age group and sex

Does it matter? • Justice alone• Descriptive and substantive representation of womenThe welfare state, domestic violence, childcare, equal pay• Elite/mass connection in attitudes (Lovenduski and Norris 2003 &

Campbell, Childs and Lovenduski 2010)

http://www.jackyfleming.co.uk/cartoons/?pid=79

Figure 8: Factors scores for hostility to traditional gender roles by sex and birth cohort, 2001 & 2005 BES

Figure 9: Factors scores for attitudes to the descriptive representation of women by sex and birth cohort, 2001 & 2005 BES

Figure 10: Hostility to traditional gender roles sex and birth cohort, 2001 & 2005 BRS

Figure 11: Attitudes to equality guarantees by birth cohort and sex, 2001 & 2005 BRS

Figure 12: Percentage stating that the NHS is the most important issue facing Britain (British Election Study Series)

Figure 13: Percentage stating that education is the most important issue facing Britain (British Election Study Series)

Figure 14: Percentage stating that the economy is the most important issue facing Britain (British Election Study Series)

Role models? • "the more that politicians are made visible by national news coverage, the

more likely adolescent girls are to indicate an intention to be politically active" 233 (Campbell and Wolbrecht 2006).

• “where there are more female members of parliament (MPs), adolescent girls are more likely to discuss politics with friends and to intend to participate in politics as adults, and adult women are more likely to discuss and participate in politics.” (Wolbrecht and Campbell 2007)

• Randomized natural experiment in India- young women’s educational attainment and career aspirations were raised in districts with a woman representative(Beaman et al. 2012)

• In US gender gap in political knowledge shrinks to zero when share of women in the state legislature exceeds 20% (Wolak and McDevitt 2011)

• Wives and mothers sit at the centre of households: their partisanship influences the partisanship of everyone else, and the others affect them.(Zuckerman, Dasovic and Fitzgerald 2007)

Barriers •Parental status•Income •Confidence

Figure 15: British MPs’ average number of children by sex 2013

Fabian Women’s Network Mentoring and Political Education Scheme Focus group participants: “I’m much more open about my ambitions with my friends and family- before it’s just

so embarrassing and now I will tell anybody.”“[It’s not] just about the relationship with the mentor but with the people around the

table.” “The fact that we can sit in the Shadow cabinet room and think ‘one day I could do

this’”“Westminster and Brussels [trips were a] fantastic chance to experience, sitting here

and having ministers giving us their expertise and time, sharing their experiences and having informal conversations with us.”

“Meeting these women who were already successful made me realise I just needed to get on and do it. A real shift in terms of how I was approaching everything.”

What can be done?

Politics is a minority past-time for all sectors of society and we should remember that the differences between men and women are small and diminishing (gender overlap)But there are some differences (gender gap).• Which came first the woman politician or the woman activist? (A virtuous circle). There is

some evidence of role model effects - we must use the women we have in politics and public life to mentor and recruit other women.

• Maintain and create majority women spaces.• Women are significantly less likely than men to receive political encouragement to run for

office (Fox and Lawless, 2004: 275) and they are less likely to think they are qualified. So we must ask them!

• Focus (although not exclusively) on the issues and topics that particularly motivate women (education, healthcare, children, pensions, caring for the elderly).

• More focus on consensus rather than focusing exclusively on conflict• Build confidence in knowledge and efficacy

http://www.jackyfleming.co.uk/cartoons/?pid=89