Replication Data for: Working for Democracy: Poll Officers and the Turnout Gender Gap

Thee files include the data and code to reproduce the results presented in the paper \"Working for Democracy: Poll Officers and the Turnout Gender Gap\". In this paper we analyse what factors contribute to closing the turnout gender gap after female enfranchisement. In the wake of franchise expansion, we test whether being a poll officer—and hence being exposed to election management—boosted the politicisation and mobilisation of women. In the context of the Spanish Second Republic (1931–1939), we exploit a lottery that assigned recently enfranchised women to be poll officers in the first election women were allowed to vote (1933). We use an original individual-level panel database and show that women randomly selected as polling officers were as likely to participate in subsequent elections than men, while the gender turnout gap persisted among the rest. Further analyses suggest that being poll officers made women more receptive to political organisations mobilisation strategies and their presence had positive externalities by encouraging other women to participate. Our findings highlight the potential benefits of exposure to election engineering among groups previously excluded or less engaged with democracy.