Racial Differences in the Gender Gap in Political Participation in the American South, 1952–2004

Abstract

The integration of women and African Americans into the politically active southern electorate in the 1960s and the 1970s was a turning point in the rise of the “New South” and essential to the establishment of a democratic political process in the region. Whereas there are numerous studies of the reenfranchisement of African Americans in the South in the literature, temporal changes in the gender gap in southern political participation have received less attention. Gender inequality in voting has historically been greatest in the South and was more resistant to change over time. This study is the first to examine the intersection of gender and racial inequality in political participation in the South over a period spanning several decades. Building on previous theories of political participation, including the civic voluntarism model and the strategic mobilization perspective, we develop and test a conceptual model based on the interplay between individual characteristics and the broader institutional context. Using data from the American National Election Studies, we examine racial differences in the gender gap in southern political participation over time using hierarchical age-period-cohort analysis. We conclude with a discussion of the theoretical implications for the study of gender and racial inequality in political participation.

Using the Civic Voluntarism Model to Compare the Political Participation of US and Swiss Social Workers

“…To better understand political participation in general in the USA, Verba, Scholzman, and Brady created the civic voluntarism model (CVM). The most frequently used political science model in US research (Lane and Humphrey 2011), the CVM was used in the political science literature to better understand the political participation of a range of populations and contexts, including gender and racial political differences in the South (Fullerton and Stern 2010;Fullerton and Stern 2013), Latino immigrants in the Midwest (Sandoval and Jennings 2012), and the rising economic inequality and political participation in New York City (Levin-Waldman 2013). Verba et al (1995) define political participation as "directly…affecting the making or implementation of public policy or indirectly by influencing the selection of people who make those policies" (p. 38).…”