Gender Segregation in Civic Life: Women’s and Men’s Involvement in Voluntary Associations

The pervasive persistence of gender segregation has been documented in a myriad of social settings, implying that women and men primarily encounter peers of their own gender in daily life. While voluntary associations are often praised for their ability to bridge other social divides, previous resea...

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Bibliographic Details
Published inGender & society Vol. 37; no. 6; pp. 942 - 971
Main Authors Dederichs, Kasimir, de Graaf, Nan Dirk
Format Journal Article
LanguageEnglish
Published Los Angeles, CA SAGE Publications 01.12.2023
SAGE PUBLICATIONS, INC
Subjects
Activities of daily living
Associations
Civil society
Everyday life
Family roles
Friendship
Gender
Gender inequality
Gender roles
Gender segregation
Men
Participation
Sexual division of labor
Social environment
Voluntary organizations
Women
gender norms
gender
social networks
voluntary associations
segregation
homophily
Germany
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Summary:The pervasive persistence of gender segregation has been documented in a myriad of social settings, implying that women and men primarily encounter peers of their own gender in daily life. While voluntary associations are often praised for their ability to bridge other social divides, previous research indicates substantive gender disparities in voluntary involvement. Yet we still know relatively little about the extent and origins of gender segregation in civic life. In this article, we study gender homophily in voluntary involvement and examine how structural features of friendship networks and traditional gender norms bring about gender segregation. Employing data from a German panel study (SC6-NEPS), we analyze cross-sectional patterns of gender segregation and run multinomial and binary logistic regressions to model joining and quitting transitions. Our results indicate substantive gender segregation across and within types of voluntary associations. The overall gender segregation is driven by homophilous transitions into associational contexts, not by selective quitting decisions. Gender-segregated friendship networks partially explain the tendency to join organizations dominated by one’s own gender. Traditional gender norms are associated with more homophilous joining transitions among men, but not among women. Overall, these findings imply that civic life perpetuates the structural significance of gender.
ISSN:0891-2432
1552-3977
DOI:10.1177/08912432231195075