Marriage and Gender Effects on Political Communication

Abstract

This paper examines politics and marriage, with particular attention directed toward gender effects on the political communication that occurs between husbands and wives. Three different models of political interdependence within marriages are considered - social cohesion, self-selection, and structural equivalence - and in this context we address several questions. How extensive are the levels of political agreement between marriage partners? Do similar levels of agreement extend across various opinions and behaviors? To what extent do gender-based asymmetries exist in the communication of political information? While levels of marital agreement regarding highly salient partisan opinions are very high, results taken from a 1992 study show that: (1) these levels of agreement are attenuated for other political opinions, (2) husbands and wives are frequently unaware of their spouses' opinions, and (3) in other instances they recognize and acknowledge disagreement. Moreover, the results do not support an interpretation which suggests that husbands uniformly occupy the leading role in political communication within marriages.