The Private Roots of Public Action: Gender, Equality, and Political Participation

Burns, Nancy

ISBN 10: 0674006607 / ISBN 13: 9780674006607

Published by Harvard University Press, 2001

About this Item

Why, after several generations of suffrage and a revival of the women's movement in the late 1960s, do women continue to be less politically active than men? This book presents a study of this puzzle of unequal participation. Num Pages: 480 pages, 14 line illustrations, 126 tables. BIC Classification: JFSJ1; JPA. Category: (P) Professional & Vocational; (UP) Postgraduate, Research & Scholarly; (UU) Undergraduate. Dimension: 233 x 155 x 31. Weight in Grams: 676. . 2001. Illustrated. paperback. . . . .

Seller Inventory # V9780674006607

Bibliographic Details

• Title: The Private Roots of Public Action: Gender, Equality, and Political Participation
• Publisher: Harvard University Press
• Publication Date: 2001
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0674006607
• ISBN 13: 9780674006607
• Binding: Soft cover
• Condition: New

About this title

Synopsis

Why, after several generations of suffrage and a revival of the women's movement in the late 1960s, do women continue to be less politically active than men? Why are they less likely to seek public office or join political organizations? The Private Roots of Public Action is the most comprehensive study of this puzzle of unequal participation.

The authors develop new methods to trace gender differences in political activity to the nonpolitical institutions of everyday life--the family, school, workplace, nonpolitical voluntary association, and church. Different experiences with these institutions produce differences in the resources, skills, and political orientations that facilitate participation--with a cumulative advantage for men. In addition, part of the solution to the puzzle of unequal participation lies in politics itself: where women hold visible public office, women citizens are more politically interested and active. The model that explains gender differences in participation is sufficiently general to apply to participatory disparities among other groups--among the young, the middle-aged, and the elderly or among Latinos, African-Americans and Anglo-Whites.

About the Authors

Nancy Burns is Warren E. Miller Collegiate Professor and Director for the Center for Political Studies at the University of Michigan.

Kay Lehman Schlozman is J. Joseph Moakley Endowed Professor of Political Science at Boston College.

Sidney Verba (1932–2019) was Carl H. Pforzheimer University Professor, Emeritus, and Research Professor of Government at Harvard University.