In July, the UK government announced its intention to lower the voting age to 16 which sparked public debate about young people’s participation in politics. Young people’s engagement in politics or lack thereof is frequently criticised, judged and devalued. However, young people are far from being a homogenous group, as they are characterised by a considerable diversity. One of these differences is gender, or more specifically gendered political socialisation. In a recently published journal article, I examined how gendered perceptions of interest affect political participation of young people in the UK.

Gender differences in political behaviour are found across all generations. While some have changed over time, other have persisted. Men have historically reported higher interest in politics and used to have higher voter turnout than women, though both gaps have significantly narrowed. Yet, women continue to be more likely to engage in civic activities such as community volunteering, while men tend to dominate more traditional forms of political engagement, including political party participation.

Civic participation may not be a direct form of political engagement but reflects latent political interest. Research suggests that women and men show similar levels of political interest when these social dimensions are considered (Fitzgerald, 2013; Ferrín et al., 2020). Women report similar interest level compared to men when asked about specific issues rather than the generalised notion of politics, which may be a result of women’s overall lower confidence in political knowledge (Fraile & Fortin-Rittberger, 2020).

Another issue is that politics are frequently framed as a masculine domain which some women find less relevant or accessible (Coffé & Bolzendahl, 2021; Briggs, 2008). How political interest is commonly measured, namely by asking respondents about their interest in politics, has been criticised for being “far from gender-neutral” and reinforcing rather than mitigating gendered political socialisation (Tormos & Verge, 2022).

Gender differences in political interest and participation are influenced by how politics are framed and how political interest is measured

There is limited research exploring gendered patterns of political interest expression and participation outside of the electoral context among young people. This matters because the way political interest and participation are measured in research, including public opinion polling, fails to acknowledge young people’s expansive repertoires of political actions and overlooks the gendered dimension of what is considered ‘political’. Young people engage in a wide range of political activities from conventional forms to activist behaviours (Norris, 2009).

To capture this diversity, Pickard’s (2019) concept of ‘Do-It-Ourselves Politics’ considers both electoral and non-electoral elements as central to young people’s political expression. Electoral participation includes voting but also actions focused on formal political institutions and actors, e.g. such as sharing political party content online, party membership or campaigning for a candidate. In contrast, non-electoral participation takes place outside formal institutions and includes actions such as political consumerism, online activism on specific issues and topics, as well as various forms of dissent, from protest to civil disobedience.

For my study on young people’s political participation in the UK, I conducted an online survey in early 2021. The survey collected responses from 1,094 UK residents aged 16 to 24 (weighted N = 948). The questions covered participatory behaviour in electoral and non-electoral activities and measured interest in politics in three different ways: (1) by asking the standard ‘interest in politics’ question, (2) by asking for respondents’ ‘interest in social issues’, and (3) by asking for an indication of which political and societal topics were currently considered important. This served to construct a measure of topic salience to understand how perceived importance of political and social issues affect young people’s electoral and non-electoral participation.

Political interest drives electoral participation, especially among young men​

Regression models examined how interest in politics and interest in social issues are associated with young people’s participation in electoral and non-electoral participation. Political interest solely predicted electoral participation, with a gendered interaction effect showing that increased political interest had a stronger impact on young men’s electoral engagement. Age and university attendance were positively associated with electoral participation since voting is restricted by age and university attendance tends to correlate with it. Lowering the voting age, thus, is expected to facilitate electoral participation among those aged 16 to 17.

Women are more likely to engage in non-electoral participation, which is linked to interest in social issues​

For non-electoral participation, both interest in social issues and interest in politics appear to drive higher levels of engagement. Prior research has shown that young people often favour civic over overtly formalised forms of participation (Pickard, 2019), suggesting limitations of measuring political interest in isolation. Female respondents were more likely to be engaged in more non-electoral activities and expressed stronger interest in social issues rather than politics. This confirms existing literature indicating that women often prefer non-confrontational forms of engagement (Dodson, 2015; Tindall et al., 2003), and that their lower reported interest in politics may stem from its traditionally masculine framing (Ferrín et al., 2020; Coffé & Bolzendahl, 2021).

Topic salience matters: young women tend to prioritise socially connotated issues, young men express greater interest in conventional political topics​

The analysis of topic salience provided insight into how perceived importance of political and social topics shapes youth participation. Political interest was primarily linked to the salience of state-related issues, while social interest aligned more with the salience of socially oriented topics. The perceived importance of UK-EU relations and national sovereignty were also positively associated with electoral participation, while foreign policy and education and labour market prospects showed a negative association. Workers’ rights emerged as a positive predictor of engagement in both institutionalised and nonformalised politics.

In contrast, non-electoral participation was more consistently associated with socially connotated topics identified by factorial analysis. Perceived importance of climate change, immigration and human rights, LGBTQ+ rights and gender equality, and workers’ rights, showed a significant positive relationship with non-electoral engagement, while foreign policy, again, had a small but significant negative effect on non-electoral participation. These findings highlight the importance of distinguishing between young people’s perception of specific political topics rather than relying on broad measures of political or social interest to understand the relationship with political participation. They also support the idea that salience of social issues is more strongly influencing non-electoral participation (Soler-i-Martí, 2015).

This blog has been cross posted from the John Smith Centre website.

First published: 2 September 2025

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