Political and social participation of women in Flanders. An empirical study of the critique from women's studies on the traditional participation research

Participation research traditionally shows that the level of women's participation is lower than that of men. Women's studies have questioned this finding, and this project allows for an empirical investigation of this critique. By means of focus groups, we analyse whether there are qualitative differences in the participation patterns and the normative expectations of women and men. Our centre will conduct a representative survey of the Flemish population for the federal government, and this allows for an assessment of whether participation levels of women are still lower, and if so, due to which factors. A field study of political and social organisations is focused on the question of why a greater participation of women at the grassroots level does not lead to a greater participation of women at higher hierarchical levels. This allows for the testing of the hypothesis that women are excluded by the male-defined way in which political institutions operate. An analysis of time budget data allows us to test the hypothesis that lower participation levels of women can be explained through the combined time pressure of paid and unpaid lab ur, which leaves little spare time for voluntary participation in political and social organisations.