Does a Gender Gap Exist in the Voting Choices of Costa Ricans?
摘要
This chapter investigates the gender gap in the voting choices in Costa Rica, a stable democracy with significant rates of female political participation. Despite progressive attributes that signal a modern gap, Costa Rica’s conservative cultural norms and predominantly Catholic population suggest a traditional gender gap, where women lean toward right-wing parties. Using survey data from the Americas Barometer/Latin American Public Opinion Project (LAPOP), logistic regression models analyze gender differences in the voting behavior of women and men in all the elections of the era of multiparty competition (2002–2022). The findings indicate that women are generally more likely to vote for right-wing candidates and even more so in elections featuring a (conservative) female candidate and a populist radical right-wing party (PRRP).