Jennings (1983). Gender Roles and Inequalities in Political Participation: Results from an Eight-Nation Study

Explanations for why women are less politically active:
(1) Situational Explanation--contemportary characteristics of a womans life span.
(2) Structural--includes societal institutions (education, econom and laws deny women the same opps, benefits and protection that are accorded men)
(3) Socialization--it is taught--men are political animals and women are not.

This paper focuses on the third explanation; can disparities in political participation be traced back to practices within the family, practices which reflect societal norms about gender-appropriate behavior,

DATA:
1970s
Austria
Finland
Germany
Netherlands
GB
USA
Switzerland
Italy

Dep Var:
1 discussing politics with others
2 contacting public officials
3 working with others to solve community problems
4 signing petition
5 attending political rally or meeting
6 working for a candidate or party
7 convince another to vote
8 vote

Ind Var: Survey about family dynamics
communication paters and role prescriptions within the family

Flanagan etc al. (1998) Ties that Bind: COrrelates of Adolescents' CIvic Commitments in Seven Countries

Abstract: The relationship of voluntary work, school climates, and family values to public interest as a life goal of adolescents is presented for a sample of 5,579 12-18 year olds in three stable and found transitional democracies. If 5 of the 7 counties, females were more likely than makes to be engaged in voluntary work, and in all 7 countries girls were more likely than boys to report hat their families encouraged an ethic of social responsibility. Regardless of gender or country, adolescents were more likely to consider public interest and important life goal when their families emphasized an ethic of social responsibility. In addition, engagement volunteer work and a sense of student solidarity at school were formative components of public interest as a life goal for youth in some but not all countries.

Country Sample:
Australia
USA
Sweden
Hungary
Czech Repub
Bulgaria
Russia

Methods
500 kids 12 -18 from each country

survey administered

Dep Var: Civic commitment
measurement: 2 indicators

Ind Vars:
VOluntary work
family ethic of social responsibility
school climates: democratic climate and a sense of membership at school

FIndings:

engagement in voluntary work and student solidarity at school are factors related to an adolescent's identification with the public interest; societies that emphasize social responsibilty as a norm of citizenship are more likely to encourage a democratic polity.

Wolbrecht and Campbell (2007) Leading by Example: Female members of Parliament as Political Role Models

Q: Does descripive representation matter? Just the presence of women in government has been linked to psychological engagement... this article aims to link it to political activity.

The Role Model Effect: role models inspire the young.
the logic...
"The expectation that political attitudes and behaviors might be most open to influence and a young age is supported by research throughout the world which suggests that political activity is habit forming..." (924).
"others suggest that the attitudes and actions of the young are more malleable and susceptible to cues than are those of citizens who have established political habits" (924)

[is this really that strong of an explanation for the gender gap??]

"Specifically, we ask whether cross national the presence of women in political office has an impact on the political activity of women" (922).

Sample:
14 year olds; fully democrat countries only (Freedom House Index measure)

Dep Vars:
(1) political discussion
(2) political activity (petition signing, boycotting, demonstrating, contacting volunteering, wearing campaign prop)
Ind Vars:
(1) presence of female political role models
(2) a number of demographic and control vars that consider family dynamics

Data:
EVS
ESS
CES

Westholm & Niemi (1992) Political Institutions and Political Socialization

The authors are looking at the difference between Party Id/partisanship and ideology (left/right) with regards to which is transmitted from parent to child; yet contrary to other scholars, the authors conceptualize the two variables in a single model.

Partisanship plays a special part in value transmission across generations. This is based on three tenets:
(1) Party ID is shaped earlier than other political attitudes (due to strong influence by mom and dad)
(2) Party ID is stable over time
(3) Party ID strongly affects other political attitudes

Yet a number of comparative findings reject partisanship transmission from parent to child (Thomassen, Dutch; Clark et al, Canada; Eijk and Niemoller, Netherlands; Converse and Dupeux, France)

In addition, a number of American political science studies also reject the transmission (Fiorina et a.l).

To better understand the transmission of partisanship (and ideology) from parent to child, Westholm and Niemi divide countries up based on stability of the democratic system to test whether this affects the transmission, and strength of transmission, from parent to child.

Authors' hypotheses:
H1 there is a more direct transfer of partisanship than of ideological orientation (direct meaning parent partisanship to chid partisanship, parent ideology to child ideology)
H2 cue taking is stronger from partisanship than ideological orientation
H3 indirect mechanisms will be more important to parent offspring similarity of ideological orientations than to similarity of partisanship (indirect meaning partisanship leads to ideology etc, ideology leads to partisanship, or effects are mediated by one or more intervening variable etc.)
H4 the direct transfer of partisanship will increase with the stability of the party system
H5 the strength of the indirect transfer routes relatively and absolutely, will increase with the strength of the associaion between ideological orientation and partisanship
H6 The direct transfer of left/right ideological orientations will be stronger in natons with multiparty systems
H7 the relationship between left/right orientation and partisanship will be stronger in nations with multiparty systems
H8 The indirect transfer of left/right ideological orientations will be stronger in nations with stable multiparty systems
H9 due to the strength of direct as well as indirect transfer, left/right ideological orientation will be most effectively transmitted in nations having a stable, multiparty system

Categorizing based on--
Degree of system stability:
(1) stable (US, GB, FInland, Sweden)
(2) relevatively stable (since WWII) (Austria, West Germany)
(3) turnmoil since WWII (Netherlands, France)

FIndings:
The strength of partisanship trends follows this classification quite well , supporting hypothesis 4 (the direct transfer of partisanship will increase with the stability of the party system).
hyothesis 1 is supported; partisanship transfer is higher than ideological.
hypothesis 5 is supported; the strength of the indirect route increased with the strength f the association between ideology and partisanship.
hypthosis 7 is supported; the relationship between ideology ad partisanship (within generations) is stronger in multiparty nations.
hypothesis 6 is also supported; ideological transmission is stronger in multiparty systems
hyothesis 8 is supported; indirect transmission of ideology is stronger in stable multiparty systems
hypothesis 9 is also supported give the results of 8.

Conclusion:
institutional conditions and historical events mediate direct and indirect transfers of partisanship and ideology from parents to child.
the strength of these inter- and intragenerational links appears in turn to be related to the stability and multiplicity, respectively, of the party system, also.