Women learn while men talk?: revisiting gender differences in political engagement in online environments

Abstract

There is an inconclusive debate on whether male and female users of social media platforms engage with political content differently. While some highlight minimal differences others evidence an engagement gap where male are more visible within online environments. Drawing on data from a representative survey of citizens in France, the UK and USA we explore the engagement gap in more granular detail. Our data shows minimal gender differences for most forms of online political engagement, but there remain some indications of a gendered divide. While the feeling of external efficacy is crucial to engage online regardless gender, women appear to need a sense of higher levels of competence in order to engage with online political content, especially for sharing and commenting. The study confirms interest in politics, extreme political ideological views and large social media network as prompt for more eager political engagement, but we do not find any substantial gender differentiation. Our findings suggest some minimal country differences on women engagement in commenting. Overall, our data indicates that while women may be as likely as men to participate in online political expression, through sharing and commenting, and may have an equal overall share of voice, the voices of many women are at least more muted in open public political discussions environment.

Using the Clubhouse Platform in Politics

“…Females may use it for the same purpose as males, e.g., political purposes. These findings confirm another study conducted in France, the U.K. and U.S.A. Lilleker, Koc-Michalska and Bimber (2021) found no clear differences between males and females in the use of social media for political concerns.…”

“Tell Me who You Hang Out with and I'll Tell You Who You Are”: Analysis of How the Social Contacts´ Gender Predicts Self-Concept as a Socially Engaged Person and Intention of Future Social Participation Among Young People

“…Added to this, the effects of social networks need not be the same for women and men. For example, Lilleker et al (2021) found that women with larger virtual networks were more likely to engage with political information in comparison to men who had a similar-sized network on a particular platform. Previous empirical evidence has shown that women tend to be more attuned to social cues than men (Djupe et al, 2007).…”

Perceived gender and political persuasion: a social media field experiment during the 2020 US Democratic presidential primary election

“…Specifically in online environments, women are less likely to comment on news sites or post about politics 49 , 64 , 65 . This limits the scope of women’s influence in political disagreements 66 , their participation in politics 67 , and their ambitions to seek office 68 , 69 .…”