A Man's Game?

__"Knowing and Caring about Politics: Gender and Political Engagement" by Sidney Verba, Nancy Burns, and Kay Lehman Schlozman, in The Journal of Politics (Nov. 1997), Journals Dept., Univ. of Texas Press, 2100 Comal, Austin, Texas 78722.__

Is national politics more or less a "guy thing"? Could be. Political scientists Verba, Burns, and Schlozman, of Harvard University, the University of Michigan, and Boston College, respectively, report—with some obvious discomfort—that their research shows that women tend to be less interested than men in national politics, and to know less about it.

In personal interviews conducted in 1990 with 2,517 people, 38 percent of the men, but only 29 percent of the women, said they were "very interested" in national politics. Some 36 percent of the males said they enjoyed political discussion, but only 26 percent of the women did. Of the 59 percent of men and the 55 percent of women who read a daily newspaper, 40 percent of the men, but only 24 percent of the women, said they paid "a great deal of attention" to national politics.

Not surprisingly, given that disparity in interest, the men were better informed about politics—though they hardly qualified as political savants. Out of 10 political questions asked, they got an average of only 5.1 correct, but the women got only 4.2. More than two-thirds of the men could name one of their U.S. senators, while only slightly more than half of the women could. Asked whether the federal government spends more on the National Aeronautics and Space Administration or on Social Security, two in five men knew the correct answer (Social Security), but fewer than one in five women did. In all, men did better on nine of the 10 questions. The lone exception: naming the head of the local school system, which 30 percent of the women could do, compared with 27 percent of the men.

Indeed, when it came to local politics, the sexes seemed about equally engrossed: 22 percent of the men and 21 percent of the women were "very interested." Of those who read a daily newspaper, 36 percent of each sex reported paying "a great deal of attention" to local politics.

Does it matter that women take less of an interest than men in national politics? The authors say that aside from voting, it makes women slightly less inclined than men to work in political campaigns or get actively involved in politics in other ways—and that, they fear, may mean that public officials pay less heed to "their concerns, preferences, and needs."