Traditional Gender Norms and Women’s Political Participation in Confucian Societies

The literature on traditional gender norms and women’s political participation has focused on the political engagement of female elites in Western democracies, leaving the relationship between ordinary citizens’ adherence to these norms and their political engagement in other regions under-studied. Using data from the fifth wave of the Asian Barometer Survey, we study whether individuals’ (particularly women’s) adherence to traditional gender norms in Confucian societies suppresses their political participation. We find that traditional gender norms suppress high-cost forms of political participation, such as protest, but do not significantly affect voting. These effects are complex and gendered: men do not necessarily benefit from privileging norms, nor are women uniformly disadvantaged. These findings challenge simplistic assumptions of male dominance and female subordination, underscoring the need for culturally grounded and gender-sensitive approaches to understanding political behavior in Confucian societies.