Tweeting through the glass ceiling? Twitter usage and candidates’ biological sex in the 2019 European Parliament election campaign

Abstract

Scholarly research shows that the usage of social media in election campaigns produces similar gender imbalances compared to pre- digital times. A systematic comparative approach for a larger set of (European) countries, however, is still lacking. We contribute to filling this gap by studying how politicians all over Europe used Twitter in the 2019 election campaigns to the European Parliament (EP) and ask the following research questions: Do female and male candidates differ in their Twitter usage during campaigning, and if so, in which manner? And how can we explain such a deviating Twitter usage? Our study follows a predominantly quantitative approach, informed by qualitative interview data, and draws on Twitter data linked with individual-, party- and country-level contextual information. Our findings show that female candidates are less present on Twitter than their male counterparts, but both are equally active during the campaign. While biological sex does not significantly influence how frequently candidates post on Twitter, other campaign- related factors – such as incumbency and list placement – do. Our findings are insightful for both gender research as well as the impact of social media on political behaviour.