Working and Lower Middle Class Women and Obstacles to Environmentally Related Public Meeting Participation

Abstract

Public meetings that are attended by a broadly representative cross-section of the potentially affected public are more likely than those that aren't to provide decision makers with an understanding of the range of citizen concerns regarding a potential decision. Previous research suggests that working and lower middle class women are particularly unlikely to attend environmentally related public meetings. This decreases the likelihood that decision makers will fully understand citizen concerns as a result of these meetings. This article reports on the results of a small qualitative study aimed at understanding why these women are less likely to attend. The interviewed women were socially oriented in their skills, activities, and sense of self-confidence. This, along with the way that these women conceptualized "environment," suggests that they are unlikely to see themselves as valuable participants in a public meeting on an environmental issue. Other obstacles to their participation, including a lack of time and selfconfidence, pertained more to women in one life stage than another. Environmental managers may attract more working and lower middle class women by making our suggested choices regarding meeting technique, attributes, and advertising. Environmental Practice 4:36-44 (2002)

Free-choice learning suited to women’s participation needs in environmental decision-making processes

“…Research also suggests that a gender gap in political environmental participation can be attributable to: (1) role conflict, as women move beyond traditional wife and mother roles, (2) differential access to skills and resources, e.g. many women, especially those who work outside of the home or have children at home, perceive their days as tightly packed, and (3) political efficacy, as women are less likely than men to have certain political skills (Craig, Niemi, and Silver 1990;Schlozman, Burns, and Verba 1994;Jarvie 1999;Herda-Rapp 2000;Rotolo 2000;Halvorsen and Jarvie 2002;Haquem 2003). For example, the low levels of women's participation in governance in East Asian countries is attributed by Haque (2003) to demographic factors such as gender-based rates and levels of literacy, demand and supply of labour force, ideological perspectives, sociocultural norms and outlooks, public perceptions and attitudes towards the expected roles of women in various domains, and various political parameters.…”

One Person, No Vote: Socioeconomic Bias in American Civic Engagement

“…As mentioned above, the political sphere is gradually inching towards egalitarianism. Gender differences in political socialization still linger, however, and women continue to have differential access to political skills and resources (Halvorsen and Jarvie 2002), most likely as a result of the differential political socialization processes they undergo. For instance, since women are socialized to adopt care-taking roles, their political interests remain primarily focused on social or people-related issues.…”