When do Women Take the Lead? Exploring the Intersection Between Gender Equality and Women’s Environmental Political Participation from a Comparative Perspective

Figures & data

Figure 1. Scale of environmental political participation (EPP), ranging from individual and non-confrontational (left) to collective and confrontational (right) forms.

Figure 2. Model of how gender equality (gendered opportunity structures) can enable women’s EPP.

Table 1. Dependent variables.

Variable	Survey measurement	Scale	Distribution
Boycott	“How often do you avoid buying certain products for environmental reasons?”	Original scale: 1–4 (never, sometimes, often, always). New scale: 1–2 = 0, 3–4 = 1.	Mean: .397 SD: .489
Petition	“In the last five years, have you signed a petition about an environmental issue?”	No = 0, Yes = 1	Mean: .188 SD: .391
Protest	“In the last five years, have you taken part in a protest or demonstration about an environmental issue?”	No = 0, Yes = 1	Mean: .055 SD: .229

Table 2. Independent variables.

Variable (ISSP)	Survey measurement	Scale	Distribution
Gender	Gender or sex (varied by country)	Male = 0, Female = 1	Mean: .532 SD: .499
Age	Year of birth	15–103	Mean: 50.1 SD: 17.4
Education level	Highest level of education completed	Primary = 1, Secondary = 2, Tertiary = 3	Mean: 2.28 SD: .639
Environmental ethics	“I do what is right for the environment, even when it costs more money or takes more time”.	1–5	Mean: 3.47 SD: .917
Environmental concern	“Generally speaking, how concerned are you about environmental issues?”	1–5	Mean: 3.85 SD: 1.07
Environmental grievances	“Last 12 months: Neighborhood how much affected by: extreme weather events”. “Last 12 months: Neighborhood how much affected by: air pollution”. “Last 12 months: Neighborhood how much affected by: water pollution”.	(index) Original scale: 1–5. New scale: 3–15.	Mean: 6.44 SD: 2.57
Variable (external)	Measurement	Scale	Distribution
Economic gender equality	Ratio of female to male national labor force participation (FTM LFP).	0–100 (2018)	Mean: 79.58 SD: 11.19 Min: 28.09 Max: 90.49
Political gender equality	Women Political Empowerment (WPE) index.	0-1 (2018)	Mean: .875 SD: .097 Min: .64 Max: .967
GDP per capita	Logarithm of Gross Domestic Product per capita.	USD (2018)	Mean: 10.17 SD: .992 Min: 7.59 Max: 11.4

Figure 3. Distribution of environmental political participation forms by gender.

Table 3. Multilevel mixed-effects logistic regression: Protest.

Protest	Model 1	Model 2	Model 3	Model 4	Model 5	Model 6
(Male)
Female	0.021	0.009	−0.099	−0.326	−0.400	−0.879
Age		−0.021***	−0.022***	−0.021***	−0.021***	−0.021***
Education level (primary)
Secondary		−0.219*	−0.262*	−0.220*	−0.230*	−0.226*
Tertiary		0.176	0.019	0.174	0.163	0.167
Environmental concern			0.476***
Environmental ethics			0.286***
Environmental grievances			0.152***
FTM LFP				−0.001
(Male*FTM LFP)
Female*FTM LFP				0.004
WPE index					4.295*
(Male*WPE index)
Female*WPE index					0.458
GDP p. cap.						0.195
(Male*GDP p. cap.)
Female*GDP p. cap.						0.087
_cons	−3.233***	−2.216***	−6.029***	−2.119	−5.980***	−4.191*
Var (Female [country])	0.045	0.027	0.024	0.027	0.026	0.018
Var (_cons[country])	0.785***	0.824***	0.779***	0.821***	0.662***	0.774***
N	36620	36620	36620	36620	36620	36620

* p < 0.05, **p < 0.01, *** p < 0.001.

Table 4. Multilevel mixed-effects logistic regression: Petition.

Petition	Model 1	Model 2	Model 3	Model 4	Model 5	Model 6
(Male)
Female	0.224***	0.224***	0.122*	−0.526	−1.159*	−1.535**
Age		−0.010***	−0.013***	−0.010***	−0.010***	−0.010***
Education level (primary)
Secondary		0.397***	0.358***	0.393***	0.386***	0.387***
Tertiary		1.002***	0.873***	0.997***	0.992***	0.991***
Environmental concern			0.475***
Environmental ethics			0.350***
Environmental grievances			0.117***
FTM LFP				0.030**
(Male*FTM LFP)
Female*FTM LFP				0.010*
WPE index					6.256***
(Male*WPE index)
Female*WPE index					1.581**
GDP p. cap.						0.555***
(Male*GDP p. cap.)
Female*GDP p. cap.						0.173**
_cons	−1.780***	−1.933***	−5.627***	−4.232***	−7.358***	−7.497***
Var (Female [country])	0.064*	0.050*	0.032	0.047	0.036	0.031
Var (_cons [country])	0.593***	0.589***	0.708***	0.500***	0.281***	0.316***
N	36620	36620	36620	36620	36620	36620

* p < 0.05, **p < 0.01, ***p < 0.001.

Table 5. Multilevel mixed-effects logistic regression: Boycott.

Boycott	Model 1	Model 2	Model 3	Model 4	Model 5	Model 6
(Male)
Female	0.299***	0.309***	0.245***	−0.317	−0.597*	−0.852**
Age		0.012***	0.009***	0.012***	0.012***	0.012***
Education level (primary)
Secondary		0.413***	0.347***	0.414***	0.409***	0.410***
Tertiary		0.734***	0.571***	0.734***	0.730***	0.730***
Environmental concern			0.338***
Environmental ethics			0.523***
Environmental grievances			0.059***
FTM LFP				−0.007
(Male*FTM LFP)
Female*FTM LFP				0.008**
WPE index					1.016
(Male*WPE index)
Female*WPE index					1.035**
GDP p. cap.						0.097
(Male*GDP p. cap.)
Female*GDP p. cap.						0.115***
_cons	−0.602***	−1.703***	−5.009***	−1.135*	−2.577**	−2.659**
Var (Female [country])	0.026*	0.023*	0.014	0.016*	0.014	0.011
Var (cons [country])	0.219***	0.192***	0.206***	0.187***	0.177***	0.170***
N	36620	36620	36620	36620	36620	36620

* p < 0.05, **p < 0.01, ***p < 0.001.

Figure 4. Predicted probability of Boycott: Interaction between gender and economic gender equality. Covariates include age and education level.

Figure 5. Predicted probability of Boycott: Interaction between gender and political gender equality. Covariates include age and education level

Figure 6. Predicted probability of Boycott: Interaction between gender and GDP. Covariates include age and education level.

Figure 7. Predicted probability of Petition: Interaction between gender and political gender equality. Covariates include age and education level.

Figure 8. Predicted probability of Petition: Interaction between gender and GDP. Covariates include age and education level.

Table

	Protest	Petition	Boycott	Female	Age	Education level	Env. concern	Env. ethics	Env. grievances	FTM LFP	WPE index	GDP p. cap.
Protest	1
Petition	0.322***	1
Boycott	0.135***	0.218***	1
Female	0.0009	0.034***	0.058***	1
Age	−0.074***	−0.038***	0.091***	−0.012*	1
Education level	0.043***	0.171***	0.107***	−0.023***	−0.176***	1
Env. concern	0.123***	0.209***	0.231***	0.072***	0.049***	0.099***	1
Env. ethics	0.081***	0.156***	0.257***	0.019***	0.083***	0.068***	0.274***	1
Env. grievances	0.110***	0.102***	0.065***	0.050***	−0.121***	0.019***	0.168***	0.064***	1
FTM LFP	−0.033***	0.125***	0.031***	0.004	0.133***	0.181***	−0.028***	−0.022***	−0.163***	1
WPE index	0.056***	0.212***	0.129***	−0.015**	0.107***	0.222***	0.082***	0.043***	−0.048***	0.434***	1
GDP p. cap.	0.028***	0.229***	0.158***	−0.026***	0.199***	0.268***	0.058***	0.072***	−0.170***	0.675***	0.736***	1

* p < 0.05, **p < 0.01, ***p < 0.001.