Why do more men than women stand for Local Council elections? : women's lack of participation in the political sphere

Abstract

It is a well known fact that women unlike men do not tend to be active in politics. The reason may be due to the cultural barriers which they have to overcome. This was the main hypothesis of this study. The review of the literature as well as the data emanating from the empirical study tends to confirm this hypothesis. The empirical study consisted of a questionnaire distributed to one hundred females. The cultural barriers tend to be resistance from family members, the confinement of women to the private domestic role and the prevalence of stereotype gender roles. Politics seems to be the domain of men. Cultural artefacts are reinforcing this male domain in politics. Age and education emerged as the most significant variables. The lower the level of education the more women tend to hold to traditional values about political participation. The younger generation seems to deviate from the traditional norm to a much higher degree than the older generation.