Gender and Political Behavior in Changing Democracies: Gaps, Transformations, and New Comparative Agendas

In recent decades, the study of gender differences in political behavior has made important advances in the analysis of electoral participation, ideological preferences, voting decisions, and support for different political actors. However, growing comparative evidence shows that these gaps are far from static or homogeneous: they vary across countries and regions, change over time, and may widen, narrow, or even reverse direction.
This panel seeks to advance our understanding of these transformations from a comparative and transregional perspective. Under what conditions do gender gaps in political behavior emerge, persist, or change? How are they affected by social, economic, cultural, political, and institutional transformations? What factors and mechanisms help explain why gender gaps emerge, persist, narrow, widen, or even reverse direction?
The panel aims to promote dialogue among research conducted in different national and regional contexts. We particularly welcome papers that identify similarities and differences across regions and explore the extent to which explanations developed in particular contexts can travel to others.
We invite papers examining gender gaps in political and electoral participation, ideological orientation, support for radical right parties and candidates, and support for women candidates, as well as other dimensions of political behavior in which gender constitutes a relevant source of differentiation. We especially encourage comparative and longitudinal contributions, studies examining the interaction of gender with other inequalities and social characteristics, and papers that move beyond describing gender gaps to help explain their variation and transformation across contexts and over time.
In a context of ongoing transformation of democracies and their electorates, the panel seeks to contribute to a comparative research agenda capable of explaining not only the existence of gender gaps, but also their variation, transformation, and the conditions that account for them.