Title: The Gender Gap Revisited -- When Do Women Participate (Un)Equally in the Electoral Process?
Abstract:
When do women participate equally in the electoral process? Previous scholarship has focused mainly on economic development to explain why women started turning out at higher rates than men in the US and much of Europe in the late 20th century. Yet economic theories only insufficiently explain variation in the gender gap in turnout outside these countries, or within single countries. Using a new dataset of gender-disaggregated turnout for Indian state elections, I show that local gender norms, rather than local economic development, correlate with the gender turnout gap.