Women create fewer online petitions than men — but they’re more successful

ANALYSIS | And they have different policy priorities

The Lily News
Jul 26, 2017 · 3 min read
(iStock/Lily illustration)

Original story by Hollie Russon Gilman, Tiago Peixoto, Jonathan Mellon and Fredrik M, Sjoberg for The Washington Post.

In a new research study, recently published by the Kennedy School, researchers ask whether women participate as much as men in online petitions — a new and important way of organizing online.

  • There is some evidence that women in advanced industrial democracies are more likely than men to engage in “thin” forms of participation — such as voting — yet are less likely to engage in “thick” forms — such as donating money or running for office.
  • Lower levels of “thick” participation mean that fewer women are elected to legislatures, which means that policy is plausibly less likely to reflect women’s interests.
  • In the United States, for instance, women vote regularly in congressional elections, yet only 19.4 percent of congressional members are women.

This might be changing in at least one dimension: online participation.

New research that asks whether online participation will follow the pattern of offline thick participation, or make it worse, or alternatively help close the gap in participation and representation between women and men. To figure this out, researchers looked at one of the most common types of online participation: online petitioning. Even though online petition sites are enormous, there is not much known about how different demographic groups use them or whose interests these petitions reflect.

The study looks at the participation and success of women on Change.org, an online petition website allowing anyone worldwide to create and sign petitions.

Men and women — or at least the ones on Change.org — actually have different policy priorities.

  • Women are disproportionately likely to both create and sign petitions in the categories of animal and women’s rights.
  • Men are more likely to create and sign petitions in the categories of economic justice and human rights.
  • Results also show that online petition signing reproduces the pattern of thin/thick participation seen in representative democracy.
  • Just as in offline politics, women participate at high rates in the thin form of participation of signing petitions that others have already created.
  • They under-participate in petition creation, a thicker form of participation.

The most interesting finding is that even if women are less likely to start a petition, their petitions are more likely to be successful.

All other things being equal, when petitions have an impact on, for instance, government policy, the agenda being implemented is much closer to the issues women choose to focus on than the issues that men focus on.

The results provide some support for the idea that “viral engagement” can have positive consequences for democratic politics.

They also suggest that there may be ways in which women’s preferences can have more consequences for politics if they are expressed through online rather than offline politics.

Overall, these findings suggest that understanding the potency of women’s issues could provide numerous opportunities for engaging women in policymaking.

The Lily

The Lily was the first U.S. newspaper for and by women. We’re bringing it back.

The Lily News

Written by

The Lily

The Lily

The Lily was the first U.S. newspaper for and by women. We’re bringing it back.

Welcome to a place where words matter. On Medium, smart voices and original ideas take center stage - with no ads in sight. Watch
Follow all the topics you care about, and we’ll deliver the best stories for you to your homepage and inbox. Explore
Get unlimited access to the best stories on Medium — and support writers while you’re at it. Just $5/month. Upgrade