Left Behind? Gender Gaps in Political Engagement Over the Life Course in Twenty-Seven European Countries

This article investigates gender differences in political involvement in 27 countries across four life course stages: home-leaving, partnership formation, parenthood and empty nest. Single country studies show that these life events can hamper women’s political engagement, but whether this finding holds cross-nationally remains unclear. Using European Social Survey data, we show that across countries “family intensive” life course stages have a stronger negative effect on women’s involvement than men’s, but more on political interest, party identification and activity, than voting or demonstrating. Further, women’s macro-level political representation only partially accounts for cross-national differences in life cycle effects on political involvement.