Why are women less democratic than men? Evidence from Sub-Saharan African countries
Cecilia García-Peñalosa & Maty Konte
#2014-010
A substantial literature has examined the determinants of support for
democracy and although existing work has found a gender gap in
democratic attitudes, there have been no attempts to explain it. In this
paper we try to understand why females are less supportive of democracy
than males in a number of countries. Using data for 20 Sub-Saharan
African countries, we test whether the gap is due to individual
differences in policy priorities or to country-wide characteristics. We
find that controlling for individual policy priorities does not offset
the gender gap, but those women who are interested in politics are more
democratic than men. Furthermore, our results indicate that the gap
disappears in countries with high levels of human development and
political rights.
JEL Classification: D01, J16, O38, O55
Keywords: Support for democracy, gender gap, policy priorities,
institutions