Not a Suburban Soccer Mom? Political Engagement Among Lower SES Women

Analysis of recent Census data by the National Women's Law Center indicates that poverty is worse than ever, especially for women. While studies of socioeconomic status and participation as well as social networks and poverty are quite numerous, there has been little systematic quantitative study of the interaction of poverty and gender on social networks and participation in collective action. We ask whether the paths to social capital and participation are different for poor women than for their non‐poor counterparts. And, are poor women different from poor men? The types of social networking in which the poor and non‐poor may participate should logically be very different: More formal organizations often require significant resources for participation (e.g., sports clubs). Further, poor individuals often rely on informal networks of assistance and cooperation, but women are most reliant on such networks because they are most likely to be single heads of household. Certainly, scholars suggest that women are more likely to engage in informal networking and have established social capital, making voting more likely among women (Harell, 2009), but to our knowledge, scholars have not compared those of low and higher incomes in terms of their types of social capital building. We use the Current Population Survey Civic Engagement Supplement and the Voting Supplement (2010) to examine civic engagement of citizens, with a theoretical eye toward understanding the differences in participation between low‐income women and higher‐income women. The analyses herein suggest differences in social capital among women of different income levels. The overall findings of this research contradict what we originally theorized, that income drives social capital–creating avenues, yet add a new and important understanding to how social capital may be created and what influence it might have on political engagement.