In 1955 Maurice Duverger published The Political Role of Women, the fi

Question

In 1955 Maurice Duverger published  The Political Role of Women , the first behavioralist, multinational comparison of women’s electoral participation ever to use election data and survey data together. His study analyzed women’s patterns of voting, political candidacy, and political activism in four European countries during the first half of the twentieth century. Duverger’s research findings were that women voted somewhat less frequently than men (the difference narrowing the longer women had the vote) and were slightly more conservative.

Duverger’s work set an early standard for the sensitive analysis of women’s electoral activities. Moreover, to Duverger’s credit, he placed his findings in the context of many of the historical processes that had shaped these activities. However, since these contexts have changed over time, Duverger’s approach has proved more durable than his actual findings. In addition, Duverger’s discussion of his findings was hampered by his failure to consider certain specific factors important to women’s electoral participation at the time he collected his data: the influence of political regimes, the effects of economic factors, and the ramifications of political and social relations between women and men. Given this failure, Duverger’s study foreshadowed the enduring limitations of the behavioralist approach to the multinational study of women’s political participation.   1 
 1. The primary purpose of the passage is to

(A) evaluate a research study
(B) summarize the history of a research area
(C) report new research findings
(D) reinterpret old research findings
(E) reconcile conflicting research findings

2 
 2. According to the passage, Duverger's study was unique in 1955 in that it

(A) included both election data and survey data
(B) gathered data from sources never before used in political studies
(C) included an analysis of historical processes
(D) examined the influence on voting behavior of the relationships between women and men
(E) analyzed not only voting and political candidacy but also other political activities

3 
 3. Which of the following characteristics of a country is most clearly an example of a factor that Duverger, as described in the passage, failed to consider in his study?

(A) A large population
(B) A predominantly Protestant population
(C) A predominantly urban population
(D) A one-party government
(E) Location in the heart of Europe

4 
 4. The author implies that Duverger’s actual findings are

(A) limited because they focus on only four countries 
(B) inaccurate in their description of the four countries in the early 1950s 
(C) out-of-date in that they are inapplicable in the four countries today 
(D) flawed because they are based on unsound data 
(E) biased by Duverger’s political beliefs

5 
 5. The passage implies that, in comparing four European countries, Duverger found that the voting rates of women and men were most different in the country in which women

(A) were most politically active
(B) ran for office most often
(C) held the most conservative political views
(D) had the most egalitarian relations with men
(E) had possessed the right to vote for the shortest time

6 
 6. The author implies that some behavioralist research involving the multinational study of women's political participation that followed Duverger's study did which of the following?

(A) Ignored Duverger's approach
(B) Suffered from faults similar to those in Duverger's study
(C) Focused on political activism
(D) Focused on the influences of political regimes
(E) Focused on the political and social relations between women and men

saviofernanz · Accepted Answer

Official Explanation

Q1. The primary purpose of the passage is to

A. evaluate a research study
B. summarize the history of a research area
C. report new research findings
D. reinterpret old research findings
E. reconcile conflicting research findings

Main idea 
Determining the primary purpose comes from examining what the author does in the entire passage. In the first paragraph, the author explains Duverger’s work on women’s electoral participation. In the second paragraph the author points out both the successes and failures of that work. The purpose of this passage, then, is to evaluate Duverger’s study.

A. Correct. The author evaluates Duverger’s study of women’s electoral activities.
B. This passage examines only one research study, not an entire research area.
C. Duverger’s work was published in 1955; its findings are not new.
D. The author explains and evaluates Duverger’s findings but does not reinterpret them.
E. The author’s discussion of Duverger’s work does not reveal or attempt to reconcile conflicting findings.

The correct answer is A.

Q2. According to the passage, Duverger’s study was unique in 1955 in that it

A. included both election data and survey data
B. gathered data from sources never before used in political studies
C. included an analysis of historical processes
D. examined the influence on voting behavior of the relationships between women and men
E. analyzed not only voting and political candidacy but also other political activities

Supporting ideas

This question is based on information specifically stated in the first sentence of the passage. The author introduces Duverger’s work by calling it the first study of women’s electoral participation ever to use election data and survey data together (lines 3–5).

A. Correct. Duverger’s work was unique because it used election data and survey data together.
B. The two data types had never before been used together in such a study; they may well have been used separately in many earlier political studies.
C. The second paragraph states that Duverger placed his findings in the context of historical processes, but not that he was unique in doing so (lines 15–17).
D. Duverger compared the frequency and direction of voting between men and women, not the effect that their relationships had on voting (line 27).
E. Duverger’s work analyzed political activism, but the author does not claim that it was unique in doing so (lines 5–6).

The correct answer is A.

Q3. Which of the following characteristics of a country is most clearly an example of a factor that Duverger, as described in the passage, failed to consider in his study?

A. A large population
B. A predominantly Protestant population
C. A predominantly urban population
D. A one-party government
E. Location in the heart of Europe

Inference

In the second paragraph, the author notes Duverger’s failure to consider ... the influence of political regimes, the effects of economic factors, and the ramifications of political and social relations between women and men (lines 22–27). This question requires checking this list from the passage against the possible answers; the only point of convergence is the system of government. A system of government in which there is only one political party is a type of political regime.

A. The author does not say that Duverger failed to consider the size of the population.
B. No evidence shows that Duverger failed to consider the predominance of a religion.
C. The author does not say that Duverger failed to consider the location of the population.
D. Correct. According to the author of the passage, Duverger failed to consider the influence of political regimes.
E. Duverger is not faulted for failing to consider the location of the countries that he studied.

The correct answer is D.

Q4. The author implies that Duverger’s actual findings are

A. limited because they focus on only four countries
B. inaccurate in their description of the four countries in the early 1950s
C. out-of-date in that they are inapplicable in the four countries today
D. flawed because they are based on unsound data
E. biased by Duverger’s political beliefs

Inference

Since the question uses the word implies, the answer involves making an inference based on the information in the text. The second paragraph evaluates Duverger’s work. The author notes that Duverger placed his findings in the context of many of the historical processes. Because these contexts have changed since 1955, the author holds that Duverger’s approach has proved more durable than his actual findings. The actual findings, then, are out-of-date and irrelevant to the countries today.

A. The limitations the author brings up in the second paragraph have no connection to the number of countries studied.
B. The limitations the author brings up in the second paragraph do not suggest that the findings were inaccurate; rather, they were, in the author’s view, significantly incomplete.
C. Correct. The actual findings, unlike the research method, are out-of-date and inapplicable today.
D. The limitations the author brings up in the second paragraph do not suggest that Duverger’s data were unsound; rather, in the author’s view, they were incomplete and have become dated.
E. The limitations the author brings up in the second paragraph do not suggest that Duverger’s findings were politically biased; rather, in the author’s view, they did not take full enough account of politics.

The correct answer is C.

Q5. The passage implies that, in comparing four European countries, Duverger found that the voting rates of women and men were most different in the country in which women

A. were most politically active
B. ran for office most often
C. held the most conservative political views
D. had the most egalitarian relations with men
E. had possessed the right to vote for the shortest time

Inference

The comparison of voting rates is discussed at the end of the first paragraph and forms the basis for the required inference. Duverger found that women voted somewhat less frequently than men but that this difference narrowed the longer the women had the vote (lines 9–11). That is, there was an ongoing process of convergence in voting rates for women and men, as the time period for which women had the vote lengthened. This suggests that at one end, when women had been voting for the shortest time, voting rates were most dissimilar, and at the other end, when women had been voting for the longest time, the rates were most similar.

A. Women’s political activism is not suggested as a reason for the difference.
B. Women’s political candidacy is not suggested as a reason for the difference.
C. Women’s political views are not suggested as a reason for the difference.
D. Women’s egalitarian relations with men are not suggested as a reason for the difference.
E. Correct. Duverger’s finding is of (apparently steady, ongoing) convergence in voting frequency rates between women and men over time. This supports the inference that the shorter the time period, the less convergence—i.e., the more divergence—there is in voting-frequency rates.

The correct answer is E.

Q6. The author implies that some behavioralist research involving the multinational study of women’s political participation that followed Duverger’s study did which of the following?

A. Ignored Duverger’s approach
B. Suffered from faults similar to those in Duverger’s study
C. Focused on political activism
D. Focused on the influences of political regimes
E. Focused on the political and social relations between women and men

Inference

The final sentence of the passage links Duverger’s study to behavioralist work in general. After noting Duverger’s failure to consider several important elements, the author observes, Duverger’s study foreshadowed the enduring limitations of the behavioralist approach to the multinational study of women’s political participation (lines 27–30). Thus, it is reasonable to infer that the author is of the opinion that the behavioralist research that followed Duverger’s study suffered from the same limitations.

A. The author does not imply that other behavioralists ignored Duverger’s approach.
B. Correct. The author says that Duverger’s work revealed the enduring limitations also found in later behavioralist research.
C. This is not obviously a limitation at all, let alone one that Duverger’s study suffered from.
D. This is not obviously a limitation at all, let alone one that Duverger’s study suffered from.
E. This is not obviously a limitation at all, let alone one that Duverger’s study suffered from.

The correct answer is B.

adkikani · Answer

Can you please explain why OA for Q91 is E and not C ?

GMATNinja · Answer

mynamegoeson did wonderfully here, but it's a good question, so here's another crack at it.

The answer to this question lies in the last sentence of the first paragraph: "Duverger’s research findings were that women voted somewhat less frequently than men ( the difference narrowing the longer women had the vote )". In other words, women voted less frequently than men, but the more time that had passed since women obtained the right to vote, the smaller the difference between the voting rate of men and the voting rate of women was in one of those countries. Thus, "the voting rates of women and men were most different in the country in which women had possessed the right to vote for the shortest time " (E). The author makes no connection between levels of women's political activism and the difference in voting rates of women and men, so (A) can be eliminated.

BillyZ · Answer

Passage: Duverger

Question: Infer Behavioralist

The Simple Story

MD published a certain study that was the first to use both election data and survey data together. He looked at how women participated in various aspects of the political system and showed that there were some differences compared to how men voted.

The author calls MD’s work an early standard for analyzing women’s electoral behavior; in other words, the author thinks MD did do valuable work. However, the context in which MD worked has changed over time, so the author claims that his approach is more durable than his findings. In other words, MD’s scientific process was sound, but the actual research findings no longer apply to today’s women. The author also finds fault with MD for failing to consider certain factors important to women and concludes that MD’s overall behavioralist approach is limited in various ways. In other words, the author has mixed feelings about MD’s work: some positive and some negative.

Sample Passage Map

Here is one way to map this passage. (Note: abbreviate as desired!)

P1. MD: W politics. 1st study use election + survey data. Some M/W diff.

P2. Early standard, some +
BUT times changed and MD failed to consider some stuff

Note: you might abbreviate failed to consider as FTC. This concept is common enough in RC passages that you may find yourself re-using this abbreviation in future.

Step 1: Identify the Question

The word implies in the question stem indicates that this is an Inference question. What does the passage imply about some other behavioralist research (not Duverger’s) that followed what Duverger had done?

Step 2: Find the Support

Most of the passage is about what Duverger did, but the end of the second paragraph extends to a broader group of researchers:

“ Given this failure, Duverger’s study foreshadowed the enduring limitations of the behavioralist approach to the multinational study of women’s political participation .”

If you don’t remember what this failure refers to, read the prior sentence to remind yourself:

“ Duverger’s discussion of his findings was hampered by his failure to consider certain specific factors important to women’s electoral participation at the time he collected his data: the influence of political regimes, the effects of economic factors, and the ramifications of political and social relations between women and men .”

Step 3: Predict an Answer

Duverger failed to consider certain factors and, according to the author, his work foreshadowed a general limitation of this type of research approach. Apparently, others also did not consider certain factors and this caused a general limitation in the validity or applicability of the research.

Step 4: Eliminate and Find a Match

(A) The passage implies that other behavioralists followed Duverger’s approach, not that they ignored it.

(B) CORRECT. The passage does imply that later researchers repeated some of the same faults.

(C) The passage does not indicate on what topic(s) the other researchers focused.

(D) The passage does not indicate on what topic(s) the other researchers focused.

(E) The passage does not indicate on what topic(s) the other researchers focused.

anand.prakash90 · Answer

For the last question, why the answer could not be C?

(C) Focused on political activism.

Thanks

GMATNinja · Answer

Wait,   what   focused on political activism? To be clear on what this choice is saying, let's look at the question one more time:

This is quite specific. We're looking for a piece of the passage that tells us what was done by  behavioralist research involving the multinational study of women's political participation that followed Duverger's study .

The first paragraph tells explicitly that Duverger's study analyzed political activism, among other patterns among women. But the question didn't ask about Duverger's study. Again, it asked us about  behavioralist research involving the multinational study of women's political participation that followed Duverger's study.

The passage actually says next to nothing about this narrow category of research. The only place where the author gives us a hint about it is at the very end of the passage:

"Given this failure, Duverger's study  foreshadowed the enduring limitations of the behavioralist approach to the multinational study of women's political participation.

Here, the author names the specific type of research we were asked about. And by saying that Duverger's study  foreshadowed enduring limitations  of this approach, the author implies that this research  followed Duverger's study ... and ultimately faced limitations that endured from that previous study.

Choice (B) is a great match for this information because it tells us that behavioralist research involving the multinational study of women's political participation that followed Duverger's study "suffered from faults similar to those in Duverger's study."

Choice (C), on the other hand, isn't supported by the passage at all. That's why we eliminate (C) and stick with (B).

parthgohel · Answer

Duverger???s research findings were that women voted somewhat less frequently than men (the difference narrowing the longer women had the vote) and were slightly more conservative.
What does the phrase within parentheses mean?

AndrewN · Answer

Hello,  parthgohel . The answer to your question would certainly help make sense of question 94, or the fifth question of the set. The main clause indicates that  women voted somewhat less frequently than men . For the sake of simplicity, we can attach numbers to these words. Say that in Country X, 40 percent of eligible women voted, while 45 percent of eligible men voted. Now, moving into the parenthetical,  the difference  would be a 5 percent gap between voting women and men. According to the latter part of the parenthetical,  the longer women had the vote —i.e. the  right  to vote—the more that gap started to close. Getting back to Country X, perhaps women had had the right to vote for, say, 20 years. By comparison, Country Y could have extended the right to vote to women for maybe 30 years. In Country Y, then, the voting gap would be expected to be less than 5 percent between women and men, even if the overall turnout was lower. To illustrate, we can say that in Country Y, 20 percent of eligible women voted, while 23 percent of eligible men voted. The gap in question would now be 3 percent and would conform to the information in the parenthetical.

I hope that helps answer your question. Good luck with your studies.

- Andrew

Foi2Evei2 · Answer

Hi  GMATNinja   egmat

I would like to ask about Q#1

P1: What is the MD's research, his methodology and result
P2: Starting with good point of his research,  then  I feel like author is trying to give the information to reader that MD's finding is not good one because blah blah

So I was thinking between (1) evaluate or (2) reinterpret and ended up with (2) reinterpret which is the wrong one.
Could you help to clarify the difference between these 2 words?

GMATNinja · Answer

Question 1 
 
 BLTN  is on the right track! Here are our two cents, in case it's useful to hear it another way:

The question asks us about the  primary purpose  of the passage. In other words,  why  did the author write the passage as a whole?

In the first paragraph, the author introduces the work of a researcher. In the second paragraph, the author discusses what was good about that work (the approach), and what was bad about that work (the actual findings).

Which answer choice captures this purpose?
 
Yup, the author discusses the good and bad bits of a research study. This fits perfectly with the word "evaluate," which means "to judge or assess."

Keep (A).

Hmm. To "interpret" something is to to explain the meaning of that thing. So, to "  re   interpret" something, there would need to be an  initial  interpretation, and then the author would have to  disagree  with that interpretation and offer his/her own thoughts.

That's not really what happens in this passage. In the first paragraph, the author explains the approach/findings of the researcher -- but doesn't really provide an initial interpretation of those results. So, we can't say that the second paragraph offers a reinterpretation.

In addition, the author's purpose isn't the "explain the meaning" of the researcher's work. Instead, the author discusses the validity of that work -- which pieces were good, and which were not so good? "Evaluate" is just a much better word to describe this purpose.

(D) is out, and (A) is the correct answer to question 1.

I hope that helps!

MukuDawra · Answer

Hi Experts
In question no. 4, I agree with option C but I am not able to eliminate D
D) Flawed because they are based on unsound data
"In addition, Duverger???s discussion of his findings was hampered by his failure to consider certain specific factors important to women???s electoral participation at the time he collected his data:"

This snippet from passage suggests us that the data had various issues because he didn't considered some specific issues while collecting data.

GMATNinja · Answer

Question 4 
 
Your analysis of (D) raises a good question: what does it mean to say that Duverger's findings were "based on  unsound data ," as described in question 4?

To answer that question, let's consider what actual  data  Duverger uses. According to the first paragraph, Duverger's research uses "election data and survey data together." So the question becomes -- was this data itself "unsound?" Or does the author have some other problem with Duverger's findings?

The second paragraph answers this question. In the third sentence of that paragraph, we learn that Duverger's "discussion of his findings" was "hampered by his failure to consider certain specific factors important to women’s electoral participation at the time he collected his data." Notice this doesn't suggest that the data  itself  was unsound exactly. In other words, it doesn't suggest that the "election data" and "survey data" were inaccurate. Rather, Duverger's discussion of the data failed to consider certain economic and political factors that were important at the time.

Overall, since the passage doesn't suggest that Duverger's data itself was flawed, we can eliminate (D).

I hope that helps!

agrasan · Answer

Hi experts  KarishmaB   GMATNinja   DmitryFarber ,

In question-4, I selected option A by referring to the below part of the passage on Duverger's findings with an understanding that he didn't include some factors, hence, his findings are limited.

"In addition, Duverger's discussion of his  findings was hampered by his failure to consider certain specific factors  important to women's electoral participation at the time he collected his data: the influence of political regimes, the effects of economic factors, and the ramifications of political and social relations between women and men."

Could you please help me understand why we can't look at this part and infer?

Also, I read some explanations referring to    "However, since these contexts have changed over time, Duverger’s approach has proved more durable than his actual findings."    to infer option C which is the correct answer. 
My  question  is how can we say that his findings are not durable or out-dated as the passage just says that approach is  more durable  than actual findings which doesn't mean that actual findings are  NOT durable  at all.

GMATNinja · Answer

Question 4 
 
The fact that the contexts used by Duverger have changed implies that those contexts are outdated, so (C) works. Sure, if you're being literal, the text does imply that there could be SOME level of durability to the findings. Regardless, the durability of the findings is called into question.

The author does not cite the NUMBER of countries in the study a as limitation of the Duverger's findings, so (A) is out.

In 1955 Maurice Duverger published The Political Role of Women, the fi

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GMAT Reading Comprehension (RC) Questions

In 1955 Maurice Duverger published The Political Role of Women, the fi

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