Generational change in gender gaps in political behaviour and attitudes: the roles of modernisation, secularisation and socialisation
This thesis examines to what extent there are generational differences in gender gaps in political behaviour and attitudes, and what explains this generational variation. Generations differ considerably on factors such as women's role in the family and the workplace, gender inequality, and formative experiences, and I argue this leads to different gender gaps for different generations. I examine such generational variation in gender gaps in vote choice, left right self placement, attitudes towards spending and redistribution, and attitudes towards gender egalitarianism. Broad cross national trends in Europe and Canada are identified, as well as country specific patterns using Britain and the US as case studies. This thesis finds that generally, in the countries studied, men are more left wing than women in older birth cohorts, whilst women are more left wing than men in younger birth cohorts. This 'gender generation gap' is produced through processes of modernisation, especially secularisation. In addition to this broad trend, the political context or zeitgeist during a generation's formative years produces gender gaps in both vote choice and attitudes that differ between generations according to this socialisation experience. The influences of modernisation and such political socialisation interact to create complex patterns of generational variation in political gender gaps that differ across political contexts. For example, in the British case, women of younger cohorts are not more left wing in their vote choice than men. These results suggest that we should focus on gender gaps at the level of generational subgroups in order to fully understand political differences between men and women. Furthermore, they predict that gradually, the gender gap where women are more left wing than men will grow over time through generational replacement. However, they also indicate that this will not occur in all contexts, and that more work needs to be done to understand how the political context shapes gender gaps.