The Gender Gap in the Duty to Vote

This study examines gender differences in the sense of civic duty to vote and how these differences shape voter turnout in Taiwan. I use nationally representative survey data from Taiwan’s Election and Democratization Study, collected through stratified multistage sampling with probability proportional to size, with binary logistic regression and mediation models. I find a modest decline in the overall sense of duty to vote over time, while women consistently report a stronger sense of civic duty than men. Support for democracy, sense of political efficacy, political interest, party identification, and age are all positively associated with civic duty. Further, the sense of duty to vote significantly mediates the relationship between gender and voter turnout, indicating that women’s higher turnout is partly driven by their stronger sense of civic obligation. These findings highlight civic duty as a key mechanism linking gender and electoral participation.