Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-mlc7c Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-20T03:48:00.008Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Within-Party Sex Gaps in Expenditure Preferences among Flemish Local Politicians

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  11 June 2019

Caroline Slegten  and
Bruno Heyndels
Caroline Slegten
Affiliation:
Vrije Universiteit Brussel
Bruno Heyndels
Affiliation:
Vrije Universiteit Brussel
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

The sex gap in politics is widely documented: women tend to support left-wing parties more than men do. Evidence of this observation was recently supplemented by the identification of a within-party sex gap: within parties, female voters and politicians tend to take more left-wing positions. While this research typically limits itself to one policy area or one political party, we provide more broad-based evidence of within-party sex gaps among Flemish local politicians by covering a broad set of policy domains and six political parties. Our focus is on expenditure preferences. Analyzing stated preferences of 1,055 council members, we find that—across parties—female politicians have more leftist preferences than their male colleagues in six out of eight policy domains. Crucially, sex differences also occur within parties. We identify significant within-party sex gaps in four out of eight policy domains. Female representatives express preferences that are more left wing than their male colleagues with respect to public spending on crime, culture, and welfare. For environmental spending, they take a more right-wing position.

Keywords

Within-party sex gapsexpenditurepreferences
Type
Research Article
Information
Politics & Gender , Volume 16 , Issue 3 , September 2020 , pp. 768 - 791
Copyright
Copyright © The Women and Politics Research Section of the American Political Science Association 2019

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Footnotes

We would like to thank Benny Geys for valuable comments on earlier versions of this article and Reiner Eichenberger and other participants at the Annual European Public Choice Society meeting of 2018 for helpful comments.

References

REFERENCES

Alvarez, R. Michael, and McCaffery, Edward J.. 2003. “Are There Sex Differences in Fiscal Political Preferences?” Political Research Quarterly 56 (1): 5–17.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ashworth, John, and Heyndels, Bruno. 1997. “Politicians’ Preferences on Local Tax Rates: an Empirical Analysis.” European Journal of Political Economy 13 (3): 479–502.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ashworth, John, and Heyndels, Bruno. 2000. “Politicians’ Opinions on Tax Reform.” Public Choice 103 (1–2): 117–38.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Boles, Janet K., and Scheurer, Katherine. 2007. “Beyond Women, Children, and Families: Gender, Representation, and Public Funding for the Arts.” Social Science Quarterly 88 (1): 39–50.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Brooks, Clem, and Svallfors, Stefan. 2010. “Why Does Class Matter? Policy Attitudes, Mechanisms, and the Case of the Nordic Countries.” Research in Social Stratification and Mobility 28 (2): 199–213.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Campbell, Rosie, and Childs, Sarah. 2014. “Representing Women's Interests and the UK Conservative Party: ‘To the Left, to the Right,’ Party Members, Voters and Representatives.” In Gender, Conservatism and Political Representation, eds. Celis, Karen and Childs, Sarah. Colchester: ECPR Press, 251–72.Google Scholar
Campbell, Rosie, and Childs, Sarah. 2015. “‘To the Left, to the Right’: Representing Conservative Women's Interests.” Party Politics 21 (4): 626–37.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Celis, Karen, Roggemans, Lilith, and Spruyt, Bram. 2014. “Girls on the Left, Boys on the Right? Genderverschillen in feministische attitudes bij 18- tot 30-jarige Vlaamse kiezers” [Gender differences in feminist attitudes of 18- to 30-year-old Flemish voters]. In Gender(en): Over de culturele constructie en deconstructie van gender bij Vlaamse jongeren [Gendering: On the cultural construction and deconstruction of gender among Flemish youth], eds. Spruyt, Bram and Siongers, Jessy. Leuven: Acco, 261–78.Google Scholar
Chaney, Carole Kennedy, Alvarez, R. Michael, and Nagler, Jonathan. 1998. “Explaining the Gender Gap in U.S. Presidential Elections, 1980–1992.” Political Research Quarterly 51 (2): 311–39.Google Scholar
Chattopadhyay, Raghabendra, and Duflo, Esther. 2004. “Women as Policy Makers: Evidence from a Randomized Policy Experiment in India.” Econometrica 72 (5): 1409–43.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Childs, Sarah, and Webb, Paul. 2012. Sex, Gender and the Conservative Parliamentary Party: From Iron Lady to Kitten Heels. London: Palgrave Macmillan.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Dancey, Logan, and Sheagley, Geoffrey. 2013. “Heuristics Behaving Badly: Party Cues and Voter Knowledge.” American Journal of Political Science 57 (2): 312–25.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Deschouwer, Kris, Verthé, Tom, and Rihoux, Benoît. 2013. Op zoek naar de kiezers: Lokale partijafdelingen en de gemeenteraadsverkiezingen van oktober 2012 [Looking for voters: local parties (and party factions) and the October 2012 municipal elections]. Brussels: Academic & Scientific Publishers.Google Scholar
Dolan, Julie. 2000. “The Senior Executive Service: Gender, Attitudes, and Representative Bureaucracy.” Journal of Public Administration Research and Theory 10 (3): 513–29.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Dolan, Julie. 2002. “Representative Bureaucracy in the Federal Executive: Gender and Spending Priorities.” Journal of Public Administration Research and Theory 12 (3): 353–75.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Edlund, Lena, and Pande, Rohini. 2002. “Why Have Women Become Left-Wing? The Political Gender Gap and the Decline in Marriage.” Quarterly Journal of Economics 117 (3): 917–61.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Finseraas, Hennig, Jakobsson, Niklas, and Kotsadam, Andreas. 2012. “The Gender Gap in Political Preferences: An Empirical Test of a Political Economy Explanation.” Social Politics 19 (2): 199–242.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Fredriksson, Per G., and Wang, Le. 2011. “Sex and Environmental Policy in the U.S. House of Representatives.” Economics Letters 113 (3): 228–30.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Fulton, Sarah A., and Ondercin, Heather. 2013. “Does Sex Encourage Commitment? The Impact of Candidate Choices on the Time-to-Decision.” Political Behavior 35 (4): 665–86.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Funk, Patricia, and Gathmann, Christina. 2015. “Gender Gaps in Policy Making: Evidence from Direct Democracy in Switzerland.” Economic Policy 30 (81): 141–81.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gidengil, Elisabeth, Blais, André, Nadeau, Richard, and Nevitte, Neil. 2003. “Women to the Left? Gender Difference is Political Beliefs and Policy Preferences.” In Women and Electoral Politics in Canada, eds. Tremblay, Manon and Trimble, Linda. Toronto: Oxford University Press, 140–59.Google Scholar
Howell, Susan E., and Day, Christine L.. 2000. “Complexities of the Gender Gap.” Journal of Politics 62 (3): 858–74.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Leal, David L. 2005. “American Public Opinion toward the Military: Differences by Race, Gender, and Class?” Armed Forces & Society 32 (1): 123–38.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Manza, Jeff, and Brooks, Clem. 1998. “The Gender Gap in U.S. Presidential Elections: When? Why? Implications?” American Journal of Sociology 103 (5): 1235–66.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
McDermott, Monika L. 1998. “Race and Gender Cues in Low-Information Elections.” Political Research Quarterly 51 (4): 895–918.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
McEvoy, Caroline. 2016. “Does the Descriptive Representation of Women Matter? A Comparison of Gendered Differences in Political Attitudes between Voters and Representatives in the European Parliament.” Politics & Gender 12 (4): 754–80.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Poggione, Sarah. 2004. “Exploring Gender Differences in State Legislators’ Policy Preferences.” Political Research Quarterly 57 (2): 305–14.Google Scholar
Schlozman, Kay Lehman, Burns, Nancy, Verba, Sidney, and Donahue, Jesse. 1995. “Gender and Citizen Participation: Is There a Different Voice?” American Journal of Political Science 39 (2): 267–93.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Shapiro, Robert Y., and Mahajan, Harpreet. 1986. “Gender Differences in Policy Preferences: A Summary of Trends from the 1960s to the 1980s.” Public Opinion Quarterly 50 (1): 42–61.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Stucky, Thomas D., Miller, Geralyn M., and Murphy, Linda M.. 2008. “Gender, Guns, and Legislating: An Analysis of State Legislative Policy Preferences.” Journal of Women, Politics & Policy 29 (4): 477–95.Google Scholar
Stadelmann, David, Portmann, Marco, and Eichenberger, Reiner. 2014. “Politicians and Preferences of the Voter Majority: Does Gender Matter?” Economics & Politics 26 (3): 355–79.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Svaleryd, Helena. 2009. “Women's Representation and Public Spending.” European Journal of Political Economy 25 (2): 186–98.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Svallfors, Stefan. 2011. “A Bedrock of Support? Trends in Welfare State Attitudes in Sweden, 1981–2010.” Social Policy & Administration 45 (7): 806–25.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Swers, Michele L. 1998. “Are Women More Likely to Vote for Women's Issue Bills than Their Male Colleagues?” Legislative Studies Quarterly 23 (3): 435–48.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Thomas, Sue, and Welch, Susan. 1991. “The Impact of Gender on Activities and Priorities of State Legislators.” Western Political Quarterly 44 (2): 445–56.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Vega, Arturo, and Firestone, Juanita M.. 1995. “The Effects of Gender on Congressional Behavior the Substantive Representation of Women.” Legislative Studies Quarterly 20 (2): 213–22.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Webb, Paul, and Childs, Sarah. 2012. “Gender Politics and Conservatism: The View from the British Conservative Party Grassroots.” Government and Opposition 47 (1): 22–48.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Supplementary material: File

Slegten and Heyndels supplementary material

Tables A-H

Download Slegten and Heyndels supplementary material(File)
File 41 KB