The document discusses the complexities of polarization in gender-related issues, highlighting its heterogeneous nature and potential for mobilization. It notes a trend of increasing polarization and decreasing agreement on certain topics including gender identity and prostitution, while some issues like LGBTQ rights and abortion show relatively higher consensus. The analysis emphasizes the dynamic nature of public preferences over time and the necessity to examine various aspects such as demographic differences and the political spectrum.

1. Polarization and Gender
Eva Anduiza Perea
CUIMP, 26 September 2024

2. Priors
• Polarization means many things
• It is always an agregate measure (diferent variables are combined
and added up)

3. Gender issues
• Less studied than other issues (immigration, territorial, economic
redistribution)
• Heterogenous (equality, abortion, LGBTIQ, surrogacy, prostitution,
feminism)
• Potential for mobilization (and polarization)

4. For some gender issues
• Distribution of preferences around issues
• Agreement measures (compared to other issues)
• Evolution (polarization is also a process)

5. 0
10
20
30
40
50
Percent
0 2 4 6 8 10
prostitnl
Prostitution
0
10
20
30
40
50
Percent
0 2 4 6 8 10
abortionnl
Abortion
0
10
20
30
40
50
Percent
0 2 4 6 8 10
transnl
Gender-id
0
10
20
30
40
50
Percent
0 2 4 6 8 10
femlikenl
Feminists
@dec_gr Democracy, Elections and Citizenship POLAT panel database, 2024

6. .05
.1
.15
.2
.25
.3
Density
1 2 3 4 5 6
2020
2021
2022
2023
@dec_gr Democracy, Elections and Citizenship POLAT panel database, 2024
Support for surrogacy

7. 0
10
20
30
40
50
Percent
0 2 4 6 8 10
prostitnl
Prostitution
0
10
20
30
40
50
Percent
0 2 4 6 8 10
abortionnl
Abortion
0
10
20
30
40
50
Percent
0 2 4 6 8 10
transnl
Gender-id
0
10
20
30
40
50
Percent
0 2 4 6 8 10
femlikenl
Feminists
@dec_gr Democracy, Elections and Citizenship POLAT panel database, 2024
Agrm:-0.01 Agrm:0.35
Agrm:0.15 Agrm:0.13
Agrm:
1 maximum agreement (everyone in the same category)
0 (same number of people in each category)
-1 maximum disagreement (everyone in the extreme categories

8. .05
.1
.15
.2
.25
.3
Density
1 2 3 4 5 6
2020
2021
2022
2023
@dec_gr Democracy, Elections and Citizenship POLAT panel database, 2024
Support for surrogacy
Agrm: .13
2020 .15
2021 .19
2022 .15
2023 .04

9. -0.1
0
0.1
0.2
0.3
0.4
0.5
0.6
0.7
2014 2015 2016 2017 2018 2019 2020 2021 2022 2023
Agreement Coefficients by issues
gaychild
prostit
trans
abortion
surrogacy
feminism
feminismwarm
lefright
taxesexp
immigration
territorial

10. Conclusions
• “Gender” conflates many different issues that respond to different
logics
• Overall we can see a reduction in levels of agreement (hence an
increase in issue-based polarization) in gender-related issues as well
as in other issues (taxes, left-right)
• Some issues generate relative agreement (LGB rights, abortion), others
are far more contested (gender id, prostitution, surrogacy)
• Nothing is granted: preferences and agreement change along time
(abortion)
• Need to look into other aspects: saliency, differences in distributions
across groups (by sex, age), articulation of positions along the left-right
axis, particularly as these issues are complex, sometimes new and
beign debated