Universidad Carlos III de Madrid (UC3M), in collaboration with the Spanish National Research Council (CSIC in the Spanish acronym), has carried out research to evaluate whether political representatives in Spain respond equally to the demands of women and men. The results of the study, which show a gender inequality in the political response to citizens' demands, could have implications both for the design of future public policies and for the debate on gender equality.
“We knew that there were differences in the political response to citizens' demands depending on social class and income level, but the gender dimension is something that has been less studied,” explains one of the authors of the research, Berta Caihuelas Navajas, from the UC3M Department of Social Sciences. “So our objective was to determine whether politicians tend to favour the preferences of men over those of women. The results showed that this is indeed the case, especially on issues where there is a great discrepancy of opinion, for example, those related to gender equality. For every percentage point that the difference between men and women increases in favour of men, the probability that the public policy will be adopted increases by 1.5%. On the other hand, for every percentage point that the difference increases in favour of women, the likelihood of the public policy being approved decreases by 1.1% on average.”
The research has also revealed that the demands of women, especially those in more vulnerable socioeconomic situations and of a lower social class, are the least considered by political elites, reinforcing a double discrimination based on gender and socioeconomic status.
The authors of the study, recently published in the European Journal of Politics and Gender, also sought to determine whether the political ideology of the incumbent government or the greater presence of women in Congress had an impact on the response to women's demands. “The data showed that neither the ideology of the government nor a greater representation of women in Congress appear to to have a significant impact on the response to women’s demands. This suggests that gender inequality is not automatically corrected by these factors, but rather responds to deeper dynamics within the political system,” explains the co-author of this study, Alejandro Tirado Castro, researcher at the Spanish National Research Council (CSIC).
Data from 40 years
In order to shed light on the mechanisms that might influence this difference in the response of politicians based on the gender of the complainant, Berta Caihuelas and Alejandro Tirado analysed survey data from Spain’s Centre for Sociological Research (CIS in the Spanish acronym) covering the period from 1978 to 2018. After analysing the data collected over four decades (almost the entire democratic period), the researchers developed several hypotheses. The first was based on the fact that men's demands could be prioritised by the parties because men are perceived as more active voters. However, the CIS data suggests that voter turnout is similar between the two genders. Therefore, the researchers suggest that the most likely cause of the “response gap” is the women’s lower involvement in lobbying activities, such as contact with politicians, demonstrations or membership in associations and unions.
“This factor could make it more difficult for women to bring their demands to the centres of power. However, this is an aspect that needs to be analysed in greater depth if we want to understand the barriers to more equitable representation,” the researchers conclude.
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