![Sample our Social Sciences journals, sign in here to start your FREE access for 14 days]({"type":"image" , "src" : "/sda/110822/TOC-Subject-Sample-2021-Social-Sciences.jpg"})
ABSTRACT
Persistent gender gaps in political engagement, which have been observed across the globe, continue to puzzle researchers. Given that the heightened legislative presence of a previously under-represented group has the potential to boost political involvement among citizens, this paper addresses the question of how women’s increased descriptive representation can shape political engagement and trust in the democratic process. The adoption of a gender quota in Uruguay allowed us to prognosticate a rise in women’s descriptive representation following the October 2014 elections. Our two-wave panel survey polled 1200 Uruguayan citizens immediately prior to the elections when the gender quota was first applied and shortly thereafter. Our results reveal that “persistent” gender gaps are not insurmountable. After the election, women are more likely to trust in political institutions than men, and previous gender gaps in political interest, understanding of the issues, and trust in elections dissipate.
Acknowledgements
We gratefully acknowledge the support of the School of Politics and Global Studies at Arizona State University which allowed us to host the “Symbolic Representation: Groups and Representation in Contemporary Democratic Politics” conference in February 2016. We would like to thank the conference participants and especially Amanda Clayton, our discussant, for helpful comments on previous drafts of this paper. We would also like to thank USAID for their financial support.
Disclosure statement
No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.