Speaker: Cesi Cruz (UCLA)
Join via Zoom: https://umich.zoom.us/j/91971833625

What determines women’s political influence? While the literature on political engagement focuses on individual traits, attitudes, and participation, we argue that how these factors translate to political influence is fundamentally a social process that requires recognition from the broader community, with important implications for understanding women’s political engagement. Using new data on networks of political influence in Philippine villages, we show that even after controlling for socioeconomic status or political participation, women are still markedly less likely to be recognized as influential. Furthermore, we show that engagement in politics through traditional means–running for office, participating in councils, or joining parties–are only associated with political influence for men. The determinants of influence are more complex for women: embeddedness in the community and participation in community activities are more important than traditional modes of political participation.