This article examines the gender gap in voter turnout in European elections, where recent studies (Dassonneville and Kostelka 2021; Kostelka et al., 2019) indicate women's lower participation rates in second-order elections, including European Parliament elections. While this inequality is commonly attributed to women's lower political interest in turn shaped by national political contexts, our analysis of Spain reveals a more nuanced picture.
Using European Election Study (EES) data from Spain (2009, 2014, 2019 and 2024), we investigate conflicting findings in existing literature regarding supranational differences in voter turnout. Although traditional explanatory factors such as political interest, internal political efficacy, and political knowledge exhibit gender differences, our findings suggest these variables do not substantially explain gender differences in the propensity to vote in Spain. Contrary to expectations, we find no overall gender gap in Spanish voter turnout. However, significant disparities emerge within specific demographics: younger voters, those with intermediate political interest, and ideological centrists display notable gender-based differences in electoral participation.
Our findings further reveal that Spain's political fragmentation—marked by emerging parties and the breakdown of the two-party system—has predominantly mobilized men rather than women voters. We attribute this pattern to the absence of strong gendered political affiliations, persisting even in parties featuring women in prominent electoral positions.