KÖN, FAMILJEBILDNING OCH POLITISK AMBITION, FINNS DET NÅGOT SAMBAND? - En studie om ungas syn på familjebildning i kombination med en politisk karriär

Abstract

American research has concluded that women are substantially less likely to strive for a political career than men (e.g Fox & Lawless 2004, Lawless & Fox 2005; Fox & Lawless 2014b). Conclusions state that socialization processes are an important explanation and that family responsibility may depress women’s political ambition. The research is missing an European perspective; therefore this study investigates young men and women’s political ambition in combination with expectations about family responsibilities in Sweden. The socialization process theory was examined by conducting a survey from members of political youth parties, represented in the Swedish parliament. All hypotheses of the study got support; no differences can be seen between women and men in a Swedish context, but because of the high loss of participants, the results must be seen with care. The conclusion indicates that the socialization theory got support; it should be able to explain the deficit in women’s ambition in the American context. This is so because no differences could be seen in Sweden; where several actions been taken to even differences in the socialization process, which might explain Sweden’s fairly equal political representation.