NSF Award
2417387
This project aims to challenge established narratives about women's political behavior after suffrage by investigating the roles of electoral institutions and political geography in shaping gender gaps in voter turnout and preferences. The theoretical contribution lies in developing a new framework that explains how electoral systems and political geography drive variations in women's political participation across different regions and geographic space. Specifically, it posits that proportional representation and compulsory voting systems both diminish gender gaps in turnout, but that preference gaps at the national level depend on how local political geography combine with the demography of turnout. Empirically, the project tests these propositions in cross-national and within-country investigations, focusing on places that enfranchised women from 1906-1945 and under-studied areas. These cases provide unique institutional variation vis-à-vis more highly studied cases. By integrating new political domains, the study can better test the theory that electoral competition and political geography significantly affect gender gaps after suffrage. <br/><br/>The methods involve collecting and digitizing historical electoral returns and census data, cross-nationally and then with a sub-national focus on polling-station-level data and state-level data. Advanced AI-assisted transcription techniques will be employed to process handwritten records. This approach will enable a comprehensive analysis of the gender turnout gap and preference gap across different electoral systems. By leveraging these unique datasets, the project will provide new insights into the effects of electoral institutions on women's political behavior, contributing to a broader understanding of political participation. The findings will have significant implications for political development theories and will support the education and training of underrepresented students in quantitative research methods.<br/><br/>This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.
