It's More than 'Just How Women Think': Explaining the Nature and Causes of Gender Gaps in Social Policy Preferences

Abstract

Women hold political beliefs that differ systematically from those of men, a phenomenon scholars call “gender gaps.” The collective opinions of women tend to favor social welfare policies and spending on these policies. Far from being inconsequential, empirical research indicates that these gender gaps in political preferences create gender gaps in vote choice and party identification. Yet despite the political importance of gender gaps in political preferences, scholars still have much to learn about how these gaps have changed over time and what factors may increase the size of these gaps. I use the 2008 American National Election Studies and the 2000 and 2004 National Annenberg Election Studies data to explore the origins of gender gaps in an area in which gaps have been increasing over time: social policy. I test hypotheses drawn from fields such as evolutionary biology, political science, psychology, and sociology. The results provide evidence that feminist consciousness, gender role socialization, and political knowledge play the greatest role in the formation of gender gaps on questions about social policy.