Youth civic and political participation through the lens of gender: The Italian case

• Authors: Cinzia Albanesi , Bruna Zani , Elvira Cicognani
• Languages of publication: EN

Abstracts

EN

Italy is one of the European countries with the highest levels of gender inequalities (World Economic Forum 2011). The aims of this paper were to understand to what extent the well-documented gender gap in Italian adult society has an impact on both political and civic actions of younger generations, and whether the process of participation assumes specific features according to gender. 835 Italian participants (49.6% males; 50.4% female, aged from 16 to 26 years old; 20% under voting age) completed a self-administered questionnaire. Analyses confirmed general trends (voting at elections is the most frequently performed political action among Italian youth) and showed the existence of a small gender gap (a major orientation of young women toward civic action, while young men are more engaged in manifest political participation). The results confirmed that family cultural capital and normative support are significant predictors of political participation, in particular for girls and young women.

Keywords

EN

political participation; civic engagement; gender; youth; Italy

• Publisher: Sciendo
• Journal: Human Affairs
• Year: 2012
• Volume: 22
• Issue: 3
• Pages: 360-374

Dates

published

2012-07-01

online

2012-06-25

Contributors

author

Cinzia Albanesi

• University of Bologna

author

Bruna Zani

• University of Bologna

author

Elvira Cicognani

• University of Bologna

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Identifiers

DOI

10.2478/s13374-012-0030-3