Gendering Human Rights: Threat and Gender Perceptions as Predictors of Attitudes towards Violating Human Rights in Asymmetric Conflict

Abstract

We introduce, in this study, a gendering human rights model in which perceiving outgroups as having stereotypical feminine traits predicts decreased support for violating their human rights through the mediation of threat perception. This model is tested in the context of the asymmetrical protracted Israeli-Palestinian conflict using Jewish-Israeli public opinion polling data (N=517). In line with our expectations, the findings indicate that Jewish-Israeli perceptions of Palestinians as having stereotypical feminine traits predict lower levels of threat perception from Palestinians and consequently less support for violating their human rights. We discuss the implications of our findings for understanding factors that attenuate support for violation of human rights of an outgroup in other situations of violent asymmetric conflict.