Women and politics in Luxembourg: a critical and demanding relationship

Women in the Grand Duchy have less confidence in democracy than men, according to a survey from the University of Luxembourg.

Women surveyed repeatedly display a “more cautious, critical and nuanced” attitude towards society, institutions and the workings of democracy, while the men are generally “more assertive and confident”, according to the study, published last week by the university’s political observatory POLINDEX.

While men give “a presumption of legitimacy to Luxembourg’s institutional structures”, women think “more critically [and] more vigilantly, surely reflecting a heightened awareness of the limitations and dysfunctions of the system”.

The Politics and Gender in Luxembourg study, which polled just over 1,600 people, said that 30% of women surveyed did not know which party would be mostly likely to solve their problems, compared to 10% of men. Gender remains “a necessary key to understanding contemporary political attitudes”, the study said.

Because women are less represented in positions of power, such as in government, it makes them “feel a more distant […] with institutions and even political representatives”.

Women also feel less represented in Luxembourg’s public bodies and are more willing to introduce measures to change this, such as the promotion of more female candidates.

“Low representation is not a statistical abstraction but a reality that affects their sense of legitimacy and recognition”, the study said.

(This story was originally published by Virgule. Machine translated using AI and edited by Kate Oglesby.)