Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-dh8gc Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-18T07:40:11.188Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

The Rise and Decline of “Gender Gaps” in Support for Military Action: United States, 1986–2011

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 November 2017

Yuval Feinstein
Yuval Feinstein*
Affiliation:
University of Haifa
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Extract

In the past several decades, many scholars of public opinion in the United States have argued that American women are less likely than American men to endorse military action as a means to deal with international problems. Evidence for this “gender gap” has been found in studies of public opinion during major international conflicts (Bendyna et al. 1996; Wilcox, Ferrara, and Allsop 1993), as well as studies of longitudinal trends that examined pooled data sets from multiple conflict periods (Berinsky 2009; Burris 2008; Fite, Genest, and Wilcox 1990; Shapiro and Mahajan 1986). Researchers sometimes view men's generally greater rates of support for military actions as part of a more general “gender gap” phenomenon in U.S. politics, but the cumulative evidence has suggested that foreign policy issues and questions of peace/war generate the widest and most consistent gender gaps (see Holsti 2004, 209–10 for a review).

Type
Research Article
Information
Politics & Gender , Volume 13 , Issue 4 , December 2017 , pp. 618 - 655
Copyright
Copyright © The Women and Politics Research Section of the American Political Science Association 2017 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

REFERENCES

Allison, Rachel. 2011. “Race, Gender, and Attitudes toward War in Chicago: An Intersectional Analysis.” Sociological Forum 26 (3): 668–91.Google Scholar
Bedolla, Lisa G., and Scola, Becki. 2006. “Finding Intersection: Race, Class, and Gender in the 2003 California Recall Vote.” Politics and Gender (2) 1:5–27.Google Scholar
Bendyna, Mary E., Finucane, Tamara, Kirby, Lynn, O'Donnell, John P., and Wilcox, Clyde. 1996. “Gender Differences in Public Attitudes toward the Gulf War: A Test of Competing Hypotheses.” Social Science Journal 33 (1): 1–22.Google Scholar
Berinsky, Adam J. 2009. In Time of War: Understanding American public opinion from World War II to Iraq. Chicago and London: The University of Chicago Press.Google Scholar
Brooks, Deborah Jordan, and Valentino, Benjamin A.. 2011. “A War of One's Own: Understanding the Gender Gap in Support for War.” Public Opinion Quarterly 75 (2): 270–86.Google Scholar
Burris, Val. 2008. “From Vietnam to Iraq: Continuity and Changes in Between-Group Differences in Support for Military Action.” Social Problems 55 (4): 443–79.Google Scholar
Bystydzienski, Jill M. 1993. “Women in Groups and Organizations: Implications for the Use of Force.” In Women and the Use of Military Force, ed. by Howes, R. H. and Stevenson, M. R.. Boulder, CO: L. Rienner.Google Scholar
Conover, Pamela J. 1988. “Feminists and the Gender Gap.” The Journal of Politics 50: 985–1010.Google Scholar
Conover, Pamela J., and Sapiro, Virginia. 1993. “Gender, Feminist Consciousness, and War.” American Journal of Political Science 37 (4): 1079–99.Google Scholar
Cook, Elizabeth A., and Wilcox, Clyde. 1991. “Feminism and the Gender Gap—A Second Look.” The Journal of Politics 53 (4): 1111–22.Google Scholar
Crenshaw, Kimberle. 1989. “Demarginalizing the Intersetion of Race and Sex: A Black Feminist Critique of Antidiscrimination Doctrine, Feminist Theory and Antiracist Politics.” University of Chicago Legal Forum 140: 139–167.Google Scholar
Eichenberg, Richard C. 2003. “Gender Differences in Public Attitudes toward the Use of Force by the United States, 1990–2003.” International Security 28 (1): 110–41.Google Scholar
Eichenberg, Richard C. 2012. “Women, War, and World Order: Gender Difference in Security Attitudes in Europe and the United States, 2002–2011.” SSRN Online Papers. http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=2269939 (accessed August 26, 2017).Google Scholar
Eichenberg, Richard C. 2016. “Gender Differences in American Public Opinion on the Use of Military Force, 1982–2013.” International Studies Quarterly 60 (1): 138–48.Google Scholar
Eisenstein, Zillah R. 1993. The Radical Future of Liberal Feminism. Boston: Northeastern University Press.Google Scholar
Elder, Laurel, and Greene, Steven. 2007. “The Myth of ‘Security Moms’ and ‘NASCAR Dads’: Parenthood, Political Stereotypes, and the 2004 Election.” Social Science Quarterly 88 (1): 1–19.Google Scholar
Ellwood, Davod T., and Jencks, Christopher. 2004. “The Spread of Single-Parent Families in the United States since 1960.” KSG Working Paper No. RWP04-008. http://ssrn.com/abstract=517662 or http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.517662 (accessed August 26, 2017).Google Scholar
Erikson, Robert S., MacKuen, Michel B., and Stimson, James A.. 2002. The Macro Polity. New York: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Ferguson, Michaele L. 2005. “‘W’ Stands for Women: Feminism and Security Rhetoric in the Post-9/11 Bush Administration.” Politics & Gender 1 (1): 9–38.Google Scholar
Ferguson, Michaele L., and Marso, Lori Jo. 2007. “W” Stands for Women: How the George W. Bush Presidency Shaped a New Politics of Gender. Durham, NC: Duke University Press.Google Scholar
Fite, David, Genest, Marc, and Wilcox, Clyde. 1990. “Gender Differences in Foreign Policy Attitudes: A Longitudinal Analysis.” American Politics Research 18 (4): 492–513.Google Scholar
Gries, Peter H. 2014. The Politics of American Foreign Policy: How Ideology Divides Liberals and Conservatives over Foreign Affairs. Palo Alto, CA: Stanford University Press.Google Scholar
Higgins, Tracy E. 2004. “Gender, Why Feminsits Can't (or Shouldn't) Be Liberals.” Fordham Law Review 72 (15): 1629–41.Google Scholar
Hill Collins, Patricia. 1998. “It's All In the Family: Intersections of Gender, Race, and Nation.” Hypatia 13 (3): 62–82.Google Scholar
Holsti, Ole R. 2004. Public Opinion and the American Foreign Policy. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press.Google Scholar
Huddy, Leonie, Cassese, Erin, and Lizotte, Mary-Kate. 2008. “Sources of Political Unity and Disunity among Women: Placing the Gender Gap in Perspective.” In Voting the Gender Gap, ed. Whitaker, Lois Duke. Champagne: University of Illinois Press, 141–69.Google Scholar
Huddy, Leonie, Feldman, Stanley, Taber, Charles, and Lahav, Gallya. 2005. “Threat, Anxiety, and Support of Antiterrorism Policies.” American Journal of Political Science 49 (3): 593–608.Google Scholar
Jacobson, Gary C. 2007. A Divider, not a Uniter: George W. Bush and the American People. New York: Pearson Longman.Google Scholar
Joslyn, Mark R., and Haider-Markel, Donald P.. 2007. “Sociotropic Concerns and Support for Counterterrorism Policies.” Social Science Quarterly 88 (2): 306–19.Google Scholar
Kaufmann, Karen M. 2002. “Culture Wars, Secular Realignment, and the Gender Gap in Party Identification.” Political Behavior 24 (3): 283–307.Google Scholar
Kaufmann, Karen M. and Petrocik, John R.. 1999. “The Changing Politics of American Men: Understanding the Sources of the Gender Gap.” American Journal of Political Science 43 (3): 864–87.Google Scholar
Kinder, Donald R., and Kiewiet, Roderick D.. 1979. “Economic Discontent and Political Behavior: The Role of Personal Grievances and Collective Economic Judgements in Congressional Voting.” American Journal of Political Science 23: 495–527.Google Scholar
Kosterman, Rick, and Feshbach, Seymour. 1989. “Toward a Measure of Patriotic and Nationalistic Attitudes.” Political Psychology 10: 257–74.Google Scholar
Lizotte, Mary-Kate, and Sidman, Andrew H.. 2009. “Explaining the Gender Gap in Political Knowledge.” Politics & Gender 5 (2): 127–51.Google Scholar
McCabe, Janice. 2005. “What in a Label? The Relationship between Feminist Self-Identification and ‘Feminist’ Attitudes among U.S. Women and Men.” Gender & Society 19 (4): 480–505.Google Scholar
Nicholson, Linda J. 1986. Gender and History: The Limits of Social Theory in the Age of the Family. New York: Columbia University Press.Google Scholar
Nincic, Miroslav, and Nincic, Donna J. 2002. “Race, Gender, and War.” Journal of Peace Research 39 (5): 547–68.Google Scholar
Norrander, Barbara. 2008. “The History of the Gender Gaps.” In Voting the Gender Gap, ed. Whitaker, L. D.. Champagne: University of Illinois Press, 9–32.Google Scholar
Norrander, Barbara, and Wilcox, Clyde. 2008. “The Gender Gap in Ideology.” Political Behavior 30 (4): 503–23.Google Scholar
Norris, Pippa. 2003. “The Gender Gap: Old Challenges, New Approaches.” In Women and American Politics: New Questions, New Directions, ed. Carroll, S. J.. Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Peltola, Pia, Milkie, Melissa A., and Presser, Stanley. 2004. “The ‘Feminist’ Mystique: Feminist Identity in Three Genderations of Women.” Gender & Society 18 (1): 122–44.Google Scholar
Powers, Daniel A., Yoshioka, Hirotoshi, and Yun, Myeong-Su. 2011. “MVDCMP: Multivariate Decomposition for Nonlinear Response Models.” Stata Journal 11 (4): 556–76.Google Scholar
Ruddick, Sara. 1980. “Maternal Thinking.” Feminist Studies 6 (2): 342–67.Google Scholar
Ruddick, Sara. 1995. Maternal Thinking: Toward a Politics of Peace. Boston: Beacon Press.Google Scholar
Shapiro, Robert Y., and Mahajan, Harpreet. 1986. “Gender Differences in Policy Preferences: A Summary of Trends from the 1960s to the 1980s.” Public Opinion Quarterly 50: 42–61.Google Scholar
Sears, David O. 2001. “The Role of Affect in Symbolic Politics.” In Citizens and Politics: Perspectives from Political Psychology, ed. Kuklinski, J. H.. New York: Cambridge University Press, 14–40.Google Scholar
Tessler, Mark, Nachtwey, Jodi, and Grant, Audra. 1999. “Further Tests of the Women and Peace Hypothesis: Evidence from Cross-National Survey Research in the Middle East.” International Studies Quarterly 43 (3): 519–31.Google Scholar
U.S. Census Bureau. 2015. “Families and Living Arrangements.” Figure CH-1. http://www.census.gov/hhes/families/data/children.html (accessed April 19, 2016).Google Scholar
Weedon, Chris. 1999. Feminism, Theory, and the Politics of Difference. Oxford: Blackwell Publishers.Google Scholar
Wilcox, Clyde, Ferrara, Joseph, and Allsop, Dee. 1993. “Group Differences in Early Support for Military Action in the Gulf: The Effects of Gender, Generation, and Ethnicity.” American Politics Research 21 (3): 343–59.Google Scholar
Wilcox, Clyde, Hewitt, Lara, and Allsop, Dee. 1996. “The Gender Gap in Attitudes toward the Gulf War: A Cross-National Perspective.” Journal of Peace Research 33 (1): 67–82.Google Scholar
Wirls, Daniel. 1986. “Reinterpreting the Gender Gap.” Public Opinion Quarterly 50 (3): 316–30.Google Scholar
Wittkopf, Eugene R. 1990. Faces of Internationalism: Public Opinion and American Foreign Policy. Durham, NC: Duke University Press.Google Scholar
Supplementary material: File

Feinstein supplementary material 1

Online Appendix

Download Feinstein supplementary material 1(File)
File 19.2 KB