GENDER AND SOCIAL CAPITAL – NORRIS 4/16/2003 9:38 PM 1 Pippa Norris and Ronald Inglehart Kennedy School of Government Harvard University, Cambridge, MA 02138 Institute for Social Research University of Michigan Ann Arbor, Michigan, 48106-1248 F: (617) 495 8696 E: Pippa_Norris@Harvard.edu www.ksg.harvard.edu/people/pnorris F: (313) 764 3341 E: rfi@umich.edu Synopsis: Recent years have seen renewed interest in social capital, and the way in which civic associations and personal trust, by affecting individual life-chances and societal well-being, generate both private and public goods. Yet associational membership can be vertically and horizontally segmented for women and men, and this study examines alternative explanations for these differences. Structural accounts stress the way that the social cleavages of gender, age, and class are closely related to the unequal distribution of civic resources including time, money, knowledge, and skills. Cultural explanations emphasize the attitudes and values that women and men bring to social engagement, including their prior motivational interests and ideological beliefs. Agency accounts focus upon the role of informal mobilizing mechanisms generated by family, friends, and colleagues. In short, these explanations suggest that women participate less in associational life because they can’t, because they won’t, or because nobody asked them. We examine these propositions and consider their implications for the social networks of women and men, as well as for the well being of our communities. For the conference on Gender and Social Capital, St. John’s College, University of Manitoba, 2-3 May 2003. For more details see Ronald Inglehart and Pippa Norris ‘Rising Tide: Gender Equality and Cultural Change Worldwide’ Cambridge University Press, 2003. Gendering Social Capital: Bowling in Women’s Leagues?