This article examines some of the key research questions and the recent theoretical advances that seek to explain the activism gap. It focuses on the feminist challenges to the conventional study of political behaviour. The article is divided into five main sections. The first and second sections look at the reasons for scholarship growth on gender studies in recent decades and at the documentation of the extent of a contemporary ‘activism gap’ among men and women as citizens and politicians. The distinguishing features and theoretical assumptions of rival frameworks that aim to explain the activism gap are studied in the third section. The fourth section centres on some studies on the role of cultural attitudes and resources that illustrate supply-side explanations. Finally, the fifth section discusses a summary of alternative demand-side perspectives on the root causes of women and men's political activism.