From the parish to the polling booth. Evolution and interpretation of the political gender gap in Italy: 1968-2006.

Traditionally, in Western democracies women tended to be more conservative than men. More recently, a strong tendency towards dealignment has occurred, followed by a process of realignment. We analyze the evolution of the political gender gap in Italy between 1968 and 2006, showing that the political gender gap has disappeared over the course of the 2000s. We interpret this trend in the context of social role theory: the political gender gap is explained by different structural characteristics such as occupational status, education, and religiousness. The latter, in particular, plays a particularly significant role and affects the gender gap through an individual’s social network rather than through the pressure to conform to specific values.