Revise & Resubmit at Political Behavior
Abstract
Early socialization is an important factor shaping both support for gender-related policies and gender gaps in political engagement. In this article, I draw attention to an under-studied aspect of youth political socialization, peer group gender composition, and how it influences gender-related political attitudes. To establish causality, I use a natural experiment in Korea: the random assignment of students to co-ed and single-gender secondary schools. In results from an original survey fielded with a provincial office of education, I show that students randomly assigned to single-gender schools are less likely to hold gendered stereotypes about politics and leadership, but at the same time, exhibit less support for policies that imply sympathy with gender out-groups. In contrast, students randomly assigned to co-ed schools show higher sympathy towards gender out-groups but hold stronger gender stereotypes about political engagement and leadership.