Welcome to GENPOL’s site!

GENPOL investigates the origins of gender-based political inequalities and behavior with the aim to identify and propose venues to enhance equality.

Within the general framework the team has already completed two previous projects. Within the first grant, coordinated by Marta Fraile, we focused on the gender gap in political knowledge. The second project broaden the scope to incorporate the examination of the gender gap in other attitudes and behaviors, with an emphasis on political interest. In this project, we moved the focus from the gender differences in levels of political involvement to the gender differences in types of political involvement.

Our current project, titled “Gender gaps in political involvement: age, work-family balance, and the local and national levels” is funded by the Ministry of Science and Innovation (reference: PID2020-115568RB-I00). GENPOL3 broadens the scope of our research agenda to study systematically the relationship between age, work-family balance and the context. The driving research question is: to what extent is participation in the local vs. the national levels gender-stereotyped and why?

In answering this question, GENPOL III introduces four main contributions to the study of the gender gap in political involvement: (1) A shift in the focus from attitudes –particularly political interest— to political behaviour in the local and national arenas. (2) The integration of the context to explain gender differences in political involvement by systematically mapping the specific gender policies at the subnational level and the role of political representatives at the local level in (dis)confirming gender stereotypes in politics. (3) The identification of the mechanisms by which gender gaps enlarge or even appear with the acquisition of adult roles. Finally, (4) the incorporation of the interplay between the context, that is, policies and images of political representatives, and individual levels mechanisms.


Welcome to GENPOL’s site!

GENPOL investigates the origins of gender-based political inequalities and behavior with the aim to identify and propose venues to enhance equality.

Within the general framework the team has already completed two previous projects. Within the first grant, coordinated by Marta Fraile, we focused on the gender gap in political knowledge. The second project broaden the scope to incorporate the examination of the gender gap in other attitudes and behaviors, with an emphasis on political interest. In this project, we moved the focus from the gender differences in levels of political involvement to the gender differences in types of political involvement.

Our current project, titled “Gender gaps in political involvement: age, work-family balance, and the local and national levels” is funded by the Ministry of Science and Innovation (reference: PID2020-115568RB-I00). GENPOL3 broadens the scope of our research agenda to study systematically the relationship between age, work-family balance and the context. The driving research question is: to what extent is participation in the local vs. the national levels gender-stereotyped and why?

In answering this question, GENPOL III introduces four main contributions to the study of the gender gap in political involvement: (1) A shift in the focus from attitudes –particularly political interest— to political behaviour in the local and national arenas. (2) The integration of the context to explain gender differences in political involvement by systematically mapping the specific gender policies at the subnational level and the role of political representatives at the local level in (dis)confirming gender stereotypes in politics. (3) The identification of the mechanisms by which gender gaps enlarge or even appear with the acquisition of adult roles. Finally, (4) the incorporation of the interplay between the context, that is, policies and images of political representatives, and individual levels mechanisms.