Playing Favorites: Public Attitudes toward Race-and Gender-Targeted Anti-discrimination Policy

Abstract

While support for affirmative action and other anti-discrimination policies has declined markedly during the last ten years, a decade of survey data show that anti-discrimination programs for women consistently generate between 10 to 20 percent more public support than analogous programs for blacks (Steeh and Krysan 1996; Moore 1995; Norman 1995). Using data from the 1991 Race and Politics Survey, I examine why gender-targeted anti-discrimination policyis less controversial than analogous policies targeting blacks, and whether the predictors of public support for gender-based anti-discrimination policy differ from the predictors of support for anti-discrimination protections for blacks. I find that respondents'race is an important factor in determining attitudes toward anti-discrimination protections for African Americans, and that gender is an even more important determinant of support for anti-discrimination protections for women, providing some support for and group self-interest theories. The analysis also furnishes evidence in support of modern racism theories and against American values theories by showing that different antecedents do determine a portion of the support for raceand gender-targeted policies. Specifically, the analysis finds that discriminatory beliefs, individualism, and attitudes about the role of govemment are predictive of support for anti-discrimination policy for African Americans, but not of support for gender-targeted policies.