Norms, Beliefs, and Networks: Descriptive Findings on Women’s Political Participation in Pakistan

Why does women’s political participation continue to lag behind men’s in much of the world? This paper argues that one reason for the political participation gap is a discrepancy between what people believe others think about women’s political participation and what those people actually think. Using data from 37 communities in Pakistan, we first show that expectations of norms around women’s political participation are more pessimistic than actual beliefs. Second, despite previous evidence that the household primarily structures women’s behavior in patriarchal societies, we find (1) that women’s social networks are distinct from those of men in their households and (2) that women’s pessimistic expectations about others’ beliefs are more strongly correlated with beliefs of socially proximate women than with men in their households. Efforts to reduce the gender gap in political participation may therefore benefit from targeting pessimistic expectations of norms and focusing on women’s distinct networks.