The Impact of Labor Force Attachment on Political Participation

AuthorMargrit Eichler,Aisla Thomson
Published date01 July 1985
DOI10.1177/019251218500600310
Date01 July 1985
Subject MatterArticle
THE
IMPACT
OF
LABOR
FORCE
ATTACHMENT
ON
POLITICAL
PARTICIPATION
A
Reconsideration
AISLA
THOMSON
and
MARGRIT
EICHLER
Labor force attachment is currently seen
as
a major factor in increasing political par-
ticipation
of
women. This article critically examines the data and methods
of
studies
that have postulated a causal connection between
labor
force attachment and political
participation and argues that at present there is no conclusive evidence of such a rela-
tionship. It then proposes three sub-hypotheses:
(I)
Lack
of
labor force attachment
will
have
a
negative effect on men’s political participation;
(2)
housewives with
work-
ing class husbands will have a
lower
political participation than female
blue-collar
workers; and
(3)
housewives whose husbands are
of
the professional and managerial
class mill have the same
low
level of political participation as housewives whose husbands
belong to the working class.
All
three sub-hypotheses are then tested with some re-
cent Canadian data and show to be false.
It
is
concluded that we must identify fac-
tors other than labor force attachment
to
explain the level
of
political participation.
The notion that labor force attachment has
a
direct positive effect on
political participation is
a
well accepted part
of
the literature on political
participation. It has its origin in the observation that female political
participation and female labor force attachment have increased
historically during the past few decades. Statements that these two con-
current processes are causally related to each other have been made
in numerous studies (Duverger, 1955; Campbell
et
al.,
1960; Almond
and
Verba, 1963; Christy, 1974; Lansing, 1974; Andersen, 1975;
Hansen et al., 1977;
Flora,
1977; Welch, 1977; Farah and Jennings,
1978; Lafferty, 1978; Black and McGlen, 1979).
II?
spite of these studies
there is no agreement
as
to
whether
or
not the relationship applies to
women and men, and the manner in which
it
has been tested needs
to
be critically examined.
We
will,
in this article, reconsider the hypothesis that labor force
attachment exerts
a
direct positive effect on political participation,
by
International Political Science
Review,
Vol.
6
No.
3,
1985 367-381
Q
1985
International Political Science Association
367

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