Gender
Gaps in Sociopolitical Attitudes:
A Social Psychological Analysis
Alice H. Eagly, Mary
C. Johannesen-Schmidt,
Amanda B. Diekman, and Anne M. Koenig
Abstract
This research examined the proposition that differential
role occupancy by women and men fosters gender gaps in socio-political
attitudes. Analyses of the General Social Survey and a community
sample showed that women, more than men, endorsed policies that
are socially compassionate, traditionally moral, and supportive
of equal rights for women and for gays and lesbians. To understand
the relations between the social roles of women and men and these
attitudes, the research examined (a) similarities between gender
gaps and gaps associated with other respondent attributes such as
race and parenthood, (b) interactions between respondent sex and
other attributes, (c) the temporal patterning of gender gaps between
1973 and 1998, and (d) the mediation of attitudinal gender gaps
by three ideological variables—commitment to equality, group-based
dominance, and conservatism vs. liberalism.
Alice H. Eagly, Psychology and
Institute for Policy Research, Northwestern University Mary C. Johannesen-Schmidt, Psychology, Oakton
Community College Amanda B. Diekman, Psychology, Miami University
of Ohio Anne M. Koenig, Doctoral Student, Psychology, Northwestern
University
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