Cohort Change in Political Gender Gaps in Europe and Canada: The Role of Modernization

2018/01/23 by Rosalind Shorrocks · 1 voice · 9 citations
Social Sciences · #Electoral Systems and Political Participation #Populism, Right-Wing Movements #Religion and Society Interactions

paper · doi:10.1177/0032329217751688

openalex publication_date 2018/01/23 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/28

Abstract

This article finds firmer evidence than has previously been presented that men are more left-wing than women in older birth cohorts, while women are more left-wing than men in younger cohorts. Analysis of the European Values Study/World Values Survey provides the first systematic test of how processes of modernization and social change have led to this phenomenon. In older cohorts, women are more right-wing primarily because of their greater religiosity and the high salience of religiosity for left-right self-placement and vote choice in older cohorts. In younger, more secular, cohorts, women’s greater support for economic equality and state intervention and, to a lesser extent, for liberal values makes them more left-wing than men. Because the gender gap varies in this way between cohorts, research focusing on the aggregate-level gap between all men and all women underestimates gender differences in left-right self-placement and vote choice.

Cited by

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• Partner Effects and Gender Gaps in Vote Choice in the United Kingdom: Brexit and Subsequent Elections
• The Green Gender Gap: Environmental attitudes and pro-environmental vote choice across Europe
• Radical right support and the deepened rural-urban and educational divides among younger generations
• How generational replacement feeds the urban-rural divide: Evidence from Switzerland (1995–2023)
• Social Change and Women’s Left Vote. The Role of Employment, Education, and Marriage in the Gender Vote Gap
• Populist Parties, Female Populist Leaders, and the Gendered Vote in Germany

Discussions

• Building on work on the gender generation gap (see: journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.... & doi.org/10.1111/1475...), we argue for a green stronghold among highly educated women in recent cohorts. Thus [bsky, 2 points, 1 comments]

Related

• Towards a modern gender gap in Europe?
• The Developmental Theory of the Gender Gap: Women’s and Men’s Voting Behavior in Global Perspective
• Is there a growing gender divide among young adults in regard to ideological left–right self-placement? Evidence from 32 European countries
• Social Change and Women’s Left Vote. The Role of Employment, Education, and Marriage in the Gender Vote Gap
• The Radical Right Gender Gap