Political Implications of Increasing Numbers of Women in the Labor Force

Abstract

Political scientists generally agree that women's behavior is strongly affected by their growing labor market participation. But how will political life be affected when practically all women in a society work outside the home? Five hypotheses are formulated in this article and tested on data from Denmark: (a) The political involvement and participation of women will increase and reach the level of men's; (b) women will become more feminist, demanding greater gender equality and greater emphasis on reproductive values; (c) women will move to the left on almost all political issues; (d) the political dominance of men over women in the family will disappear; and (e) political resources as well as situational factors will influence men and women in the same way.