Girls, boys and politics.

Some of the most solidly researched and validated findings in the social sciences relate to the differential participation of men and women in political activities of all kinds from voting and membership of parties, to interest in politics and political attitudes. Women have been found to vote less than men, to participate in political parties less than men, to know less about politics than men, to have less interest in politics than men and to be more conservative than men. A number of explanations of these findings have been suggested in this article. One type of explanation stresses the structural restraints militating against women's participation; the restraints, including the tasks of child-rearing and maintaining a home, are held to account for the lower political participation and knowledge since women, contrasted with men, are prevented from linking up with the wider network of social contacts which helps to maintain male political involvement. This explanation is obviously a powerful one and does account for the well-documented finding that women's rate of participation increases when such burdens cease and that mothers with young children are consistently less likely to vote than are fathers with young children across all levels of education within both the 21-34 and 35-54 age groups.