The Influence Gap: Unequal Policy Responsiveness to Men and Women

Despite decades of research on women’s representation, we still know surprisingly little about the extent to which public policy responds unequally to the preferences of women and men. This article exploits two comparable data sets, one for the United States and one for Norway, together containing measures of gender-disaggregated public opinion, as well as public policy outcomes, on 2,650 specific proposals asked about in survey polls between 1964 and 2014. The data reveal a substantial gap in policy responsiveness to men and women (in favor of men) in both countries. However, in Norway, the gender gap has virtually disappeared over time, a development that appears to be attributable to the increasing share of women in parliament. In the United States, the gap has remained remarkably stable over time.