Asking the Right Questions: A Framework for Developing Gender-Balanced Political Knowledge Batteries

• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1177/10659129221092473
• Published date: 01 March 2023
• Date: 01 March 2023
• Subject Matter: Articles

https://doi.org/10.1177/10659129221092473

Political Research Quarterly

© 2022 University of Utah

Article reuse guidelines:

sagepub.com/journals-permissions

DOI: 10.1177/10659129221092473

journals.sagepub.com/home/prq

A significant body of work demonstrates the existence of

a gender gap in political knowledge, both in the United

States and around the world (Burns, Scholzman, and

Verba 2001; Delli Carpini and Keeter 1997, 1993; Dow

2009; Ferrin, Fraile, and Garcia-Albacete 2018; Fortin-

Rittberger 2016; Fraile 2014; Fraile and Gomez 2015;

Frazer and Macdonald 2003; Jerit and Barbaras 2017;

Kenski and Jameson 2000; Miller 2019; Sanbonmatsu

2003; Wolak and McDevitt 2011).1 Since political knowl-

edge is held in such high regard in democracies, any gen-

der gap in political knowledge is seen as a worrisome

signal that women are less engaged and less able to advo-

cate for their interests in society than are men (Delli

Carpini and Keeter 1997; Lau and Redlawsk 2006; Verba,

Burns, and Scholzman 1997; Verba and Nie 1972). These

concerns are not without consequence, as research finds

that women’s political participation is sensitive to knowl-

edge levels and that societal beliefs about women’s lower

levels of political knowledge creates an atmosphere that

can further depress women’s performance on knowledge-

related tasks (Ihme and Tausendpfund 2017; Ondercin

and Jones-White 2011).

In seeking to explain these gender gaps in knowledge,

scholars have considered a range of influences, from the

resources and life situations of women and men to pat-

terns of political socialization and levels of descriptive

representation in political life. An additional set of expla-

nations examines how the concept of political knowledge

is measured, uncovering evidence that the gender gap in

knowledge is, at least in part, the result of measurement

artifacts. Yet, while there is growing evidence that mea-

surement issues have some role to play in shaping the

gender gap in knowledge, there are fewer projects that

offer guidance on what scholars can do to avoid a bias

against women’s demonstration of knowledge. In this

paper, we contribute to the discussion of the gender gap

in political knowledge by proposing a strategy for schol-

ars to diversify their measures to allow for a fuller expres-

sion of what respondents know about a wider range of

political and governmental issues. We seek to offer spe-

cific recommendations for researchers on how to identify

items that achieve more balanced measures of political

knowledge. In employing gender-balanced measures of

knowledge, we identify evidence of higher levels of

1092473PRQXXX10.1177/10659129221092473Political Research QuarterlyKraft and Dolan

research-article2022

1Department of Political Science, University of Wisconsin Milwaukee,

Milwaukee, WI, USA

Corresponding Author:

Kathleen Dolan, Department of Political Science, University of

Wisconsin Milwaukee, 3210 N. Maryland Avenue, Milwaukee, WI

53211, USA.

Email: kdolan@uwm.edu

Asking the Right Questions: A

Framework for Developing

Gender-Balanced Political

Knowledge Batteries

Patrick W. Kraft1 and Kathleen Dolan1

Abstract

Gender differences in political knowledge are a well-known empirical finding in public opinion research. Scholars

working in this area have proposed various explanations for this phenomenon, often focusing on issues regarding the

format and content of factual knowledge batteries. Yet, there are surprisingly few works that focus on how scholars

might diversify the content of political knowledge measures to develop items that are less biased toward male areas of

expertise. In this paper, we propose an inductive framework to develop more gender-balanced knowledge batteries

by including political issues that are of particular relevance to women and women’s lives. Employing gender-balanced

measures of political knowledge reveal instances where women and men demonstrate equivalent levels of political

knowledge and higher levels of political interest and efficacy among women—engagement that is often masked by

conventional measures of knowledge.

Keywords

political knowledge, gender gap, measurement, gender-relevant knowledge

Article

2023, Vol. 76(1) 393–406