Posted on 07/03/2013 9:21:25 AM PDT by NotYourAverageDhimmi
Women living in the worlds most advanced democracies and under the most progressive gender equality regimes still know less about politics than men. Indeed, an unmistakable gender gap in political knowledge seems to be a global phenomenon, according to a ten-nation study of media systems and national political knowledge funded by the Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC).
Women know less about politics than men regardless of how advanced a country is in terms of gender equality, says researcher Professor James Curran, Director of the Goldsmiths Leverhulme Media Research Centre at University of London. Our finding that the gap between men and womens knowledge of politics is greater in Norway a country ranked globally as one of the very highest in terms of gender equality than in South Korea a country with a much lower equality rating is particularly striking, Professor Curran points out.
The study also discovered that gender gaps in political knowledge tend to be even wider in so called advanced economies such as the United Kingdom and United States than in less advanced economies such as Colombia. Professor Curran says: The fact that throughout the whole world women know less about politics than men and that this is as true for people in Norway as it is in Colombia is really very surprising.
In this study, researchers surveyed men and womens knowledge of domestic and international news as well as current affairs in Australia, Canada, Colombia, Greece, Italy, Japan, Korea, Norway, the UK and the US. Exploring the reasons for the gender gap researchers examined both the content of news and the supply of news in all ten nations. Findings reveal: News coverage is heavily weighted toward male sources even in countries such as the UK and Australia where gender equality ratings are relatively high. Overall, women are only interviewed or cited in 30 per cent of TV news stories in the ten nations. In all ten countries, female sources tend only to appear in longer news items or articles and are preferred for soft news topics such as family, lifestyle and culture.
"Such under-representation and topical bias of women in news media may curb womens motivation to acquire political knowledge actively, and discourage them from political participation, and even prevent women from engaging in citizens in a democratic society," suggests co-researcher Professor Kaori Hayashi.
In terms of the supply of news, findings reveal that: The more national populations watch TV news, particularly news provided by Public Service Broadcasters as opposed to commercial providers, the better informed on politics people tend to be News watching/reading/listening is very much a male activity. In Canada, Norway and the UK, men claim to be exposed to TV and newspaper news significantly more than women. These are also the countries where political knowledge gaps between men and women are especially large
"It seems that gaps in exposure to media are related to the gaps of knowledge between men and women," says Professor Hayashi. The reasons why women watch less TV, read fewer newspapers and listen to less radio programmes in many countries than men could include the discouragingly male bias of much media content, less leisure time because of the greater unpaid work undertaken by women in the home and persistent social norms and expectations inherited from the past.
"Whatever the reasons, our research shows that globally in the 21st century those who are most likely to be knowledgeable about politics and current affairs are older men in advanced industrial nations," Professor Curran concludes.
Oh no you di'int.
kidding! kidding! back, back, say!
Women view things personally, as it would affect them as individuals. This taints the political discussion.
Ah, now we see the real point of this leftist bilge.
In terms of the supply of news, findings reveal that: The more national populations watch TV news, particularly news provided by Public Service Broadcasters as opposed to commercial providers, the better informed on politics people tend to be
Apparently "political knowledge" means buying into government run leftist media. Yup, leftist bilge...
That said, men should still help with the housework, and make the time to really get to know those kids of theirs, and their mother, who live in the same house with them.
And single women with children learn all they need to know about politics: the candidate who will better “provide” for their kids.
Makes sense to me. Typically women are more focused inward on the family than men are, and people in general seem to be less interested in history and the big picture until they are older.
Men have been marginalized ant taught that their opinion doesn’t matter anymore.
Uh oh. Someone’s gonna lose their tenure.
You don't say...
The Democratic Party has been counting on that since the ink dried on the 19th. Amendment
Conservative women know more about politics than Liberal men...
Most people just want to live their lives without having to concentrate on filthy politicians. Unfortunately, those who ignore their government won’t be ignored by their government.
I'd be willing to bet that an unbiased study would prove your statement correct.
They have?
Abortion ... baby killing trumps all. Sums up their entire political knowledge.
Your picture reminds me of the images of German women back in the 1930’s with gazed eyes and idiotic smiles on their faces as they were mezmerized by another charismatic “progressive” leader.
You might have hear of him too.
We have seen the wussification of over 2 generations of boys in the public school system. Most under 30’s I have been around have no interest in politics at all.
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