本研究採用 2003 年台灣地區社會變遷基本調查資料，來檢視台灣男女政治參與的差異以及相關的解釋。關於男女政治參與的差異，主要解釋途徑可以歸類為兩種:一則認為女性政治參與低於男性，乃是由於女性「無法」參與，也就是源於男女分處不同社經地位，或是私領域情境所產生的限制，造成兩性在政治參與所需「資源條件」的差異所造成的；二則是由於女性「不願」參與，源於社會化的差異，使得女性產生低度政治涉入感，在政治參與的「認知態度」上的差異，進而產生政治行為上的差異。近來政治參與性別差異的研究，有逐漸由強調「資源條件論」轉向「認知態度論」。本研究初步資料分析也發現，兩性政治參與的差異，源於認知動機者多過於資源條件的差異。然而，資源條件與認知態度之間並非完全獨立的，個人參與的動機態度又往往受到資源條的影響，本文進一步透過路徑分析，分別解開這些不同因素之間交錯地、直接與間接地、且深淺不一地對兩性政治參與所造成的差異。

This study applies 2003 Taiwan Social Change Survey data to examine gender differences in political participation and possible explanations.The major explanations for gender differences in political participations are two: first, women are less politically active due to women’s incapable of participation.Men and women locate in different social status or face different private situations, in return, they own different participatory resources and conditions.Secondly, women are less willing to participate；because of the socialization effect women are relatively passive in terms of political engagement.The gaps in recognition and attitude then translate into political behaviors.Recent studies in political participation have gradually changed focus from resource-and-condition to recognition-and-attitude.This primary analysis also finds that the cause of gender difference in political participation lies less in resource-and-condition and more in recognition-and-attitude.? However, resource-and-condition and recognition-and-motivation are not independent factors, individual motivation for political participation are shaped and constrained by his/her resources and conditions.This study further applies path analysis to untangle the different impacts of various factors, to see how they interactively、directly and indirectly、deeply and slightly influence gender differences in political participation.