Gender Differences in Public Issue Salience: Evidence from Czechia

Abstract

This study explores gender differences in public issue salience—the relative importance that men and women place on various public issues—focusing on how assets like wealth, education, and marketable skills shape these priorities within the Czech social context. This study is rooted in Iversen and Soskice’s theory of assets as well as in the Iversen and Rosenbluth’s theory of political preferences, which help to explain gender differences in the issue salience among subgroups of women who negotiate their positions in the labor market. When data from the Czech Public Opinion Research Center (CVVM) were analyzed with binary logistic regression and predictive margins, the findings revealed that assets affect the salience that men and women assign to social protection issues. Women are more likely than men to view social protection issues as the most important issue domains. This is explained by the potential of social protection policies to enable women to invest in their marketable skills, use their skills in the labor market, and emancipate themselves. Health issues are highly gendered, with men consistently assigning low importance to health concerns, irrespective of their background. This study contributes to the understanding of gender differences in issue salience, political attitudes, and agenda-setting.