Gender differences in political interest in South and Southeast Asia

Abstract

Numerous socioeconomic variables, including educational attainment and labor force participation, have witnessed a decline in gender disparities in recent decades. According to numerous international research studies and surveys, women appear to be less politically active and less interested than men. In this context, women in Asia have traditionally been underrepresented in politics, home, economics, and society. Therefore, this study aims to observe gender disproportion in South and Southeast Asia, generate comparative data, and test existing theories. This study utilizes data from the seventh phase of the World Values Survey (WVS) for Myanmar, Bangladesh, Thailand, Vietnam, and the Philippines. This paper is different from previous research in that it measures political interest, contentment with democracy, and non-institutionalized involvement in a greater number of nations. Quantitative techniques were used to gather and analyze data, such as descriptive analysis and regression. The OLS regression was used to find the relationship between political interest and other independent variables, and the multi-Level regression model was used to predict the political interest by gender in terms of country level democracy. The results of this study also show that socioeconomic factors and other country-level variables, like the Human Development Index, the Gross Domestic Product, and the number of women in parliament, don't have a big effect on the rise of women's interest in politics. Given these facts, this study suggests the level of liberal democracy, not resources or a patriarchal society, is the leading cause for the gender differences in political interest in South and Southeast Asia.