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The influence of gender on attitudes towards the EU among the Polish ‘winners of European integration’

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  16 December 2019

Adrian Favero Open the ORCID record for Adrian Favero [Opens in a new window]
Adrian Favero*
Affiliation:
School of Social and Political Science, University of Edinburgh, EdinburghUK Department of Political Science and International Studies, University of Birmingham, Birmingham, UK
*
E-mail: [email protected]
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Abstract

This paper investigates the role of gender in shaping attitudes towards the European Union (EU) among young people living in Polish cities – the so-called ‘winners of European integration’. Previously, little attention has been given to gender as an influence on views on the EU. Most studies apply the gender-based perspective on Western Europe, while Central and Eastern European countries remain understudied. Based on theories on public opinion, I employ a mixed-methods approach, conducting a survey among 815 MA students living in Polish cities, followed by 27 semi-structured interviews. This analysis of gender-related attitudes towards the EU offers nuanced insights into transitions within post-communist societies. My findings posit that the sampled well-educated women are more likely to support EU integration than men. Education, gender-based individual cost-benefit analyses, and the perceptions of national politics are possible explanations for the positive attitudes towards the EU among the sampled women.

Keywords

European integrationpublic opiniongenderCentral and Eastern Europemixed methods
Type
Research Article
Information
European Political Science Review , Volume 12 , Issue 1 , February 2020 , pp. 19 - 34
Copyright
© European Consortium for Political Research 2019

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