Gender a výzkum / Gender and Research 2016, 17 (2): 64-75 | DOI: 10.13060/12130028.2016.17.2.283

Nothing for the Girls? The Gender Gap in Political Participation on Social Network Sites

Lenka Vochocová, Jaromír Mazák, Václav Štětka

Nothing for the Girls? The Gender Gap in Political Participation on Social Network Sites
This paper elaborates on the authors' previous research on the relatively unexplored area of the gender aspects of online political participation. Quantitative content analysis is used to analyse communication on selected Czech political parties' Facebook profiles during the campaign for the parliamentary elections in 2013 and 2014. The article focuses on women's presence in political discussions and the relationship between their presence and the negativity of the communication in the forum, and presents a literature review offering possible explanations for the surprising difference in both the activity of men and women and the differences in the activity of female participants on the profile pages of different parties. The results of this research challenge some established assumptions about the alleged narrowing of the gender gap in the Internet environment and in social media specifically, as men turn out to be much more active than women.

Keywords: online political participation, gender, election campaigns

Published: June 1, 2016  Show citation

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Vochocová, Lenka, Jaromír Mazák, and Václav Štětka. 2016. "Nothing for the Girls? The Gender Gap in Political Participation on Social Network Sites." Gender, Equal Opportunities, Research 17(2):64-75.
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