Identifying gender inequalities in pathways to political participation: a large-N QCA framework

Do female and male youths in the United States follow different modal pathways to voting participation? If so, do these differences reflect gender inequalities? This paper seeks to answer these questions by employing a large-N Qualitative Comparative Analysis (QCA) of youth voting patterns in the 1972 presidential elections. The study specifically probes how four explanatory factors, namely family socioeconomic status, college education, political socialization, and voluntarism, combine in distinct ways to contribute to the category of politically active youths. The investigation of this category uncovers three aspects of gender inequalities in voting participation: a greater degree of difficulty in the pathways for female youths, a lack of diversity among politically active female youths, and a trend of political inactivity among socially disadvantaged female youths. The findings from the 2004 and 2012 presidential elections suggest that gender inequalities persist even today, despite female youths achieving significantly higher turnout levels than male youths. Compared to their male counterparts, contemporary female youths must and do overcome more challenges to engage in voting. This paper concludes by considering how future applications of large-N QCA could help identify inequalities in political participation for other groups and in other contexts.