Replication Data for: Reducing Gender Gaps in Political Participation with Efficacy Promotion: Evidence from a Civic Education Experiment in Zambia

In many countries, women participate in politics at lower rates than men. This gap is often most pronounced among young adults. Civic education programs that provide non-partisan political information are commonly used to try to close this gender gap. However, information alone rarely reduces the gap and sometimes exacerbates it. We extend literature that emphasizes the psychological resources women need to participate by evaluating whether embedding efficacy-promoting messages within civic education reduces gender disparities in participation. In collaboration with Zambian civic organizations, we implemented a field experiment before national elections that randomly assigned urban young adults to an information-only course or the same course with efficacy-promoting messages. We find that the efficacy-promoting course substantially increased young women’s political interest and participation, narrowing gender gaps across a wide range of behavioral and attitudinal outcomes. We discuss implications for theories of political participation and the design of civic education.

在诸多国家，女性参与政治（political participation）的比例普遍低于男性，这一差距在青年群体中尤为显著。旨在提供无党派（non-partisan）政治信息的公民教育（civic education）项目被广泛应用，以期缩小这一性别差距。然而，仅依靠信息传递往往难以缩小该差距，有时甚至会加剧性别参与失衡。
本研究拓展了强调女性参与政治所需心理资源的相关学术文献，通过检验在公民教育中嵌入提升政治效能感（political efficacy）的信息，是否能够减少政治参与中的性别差异。我们与赞比亚公民组织合作，在全国大选前开展了一项田野实验（field experiment）：将城市青年随机分配至仅接收政治信息的课程组，或配套了效能提升信息的同名课程组。研究结果表明，嵌入效能提升信息的课程显著提升了青年女性的政治兴趣与参与行为，缩小了行为与态度维度下多项指标的性别差距。
本文最后讨论了该研究对政治参与理论及公民教育设计的启示。