The Gender Gap in Attitudes toward Peace [electronic resource] / Hans J. Hippler and Others.
Opinion polls in the United States have shown gender differences in attitudes toward military issues, with women reporting less support for aggressive military options than do men. The cross cultural stability of gender differences in attitudes toward military issues was examined using data from 2,1...
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| Format: | Electronic eBook |
| Language: | English |
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Distributed by ERIC Clearinghouse,
1986.
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| Summary: | Opinion polls in the United States have shown gender differences in attitudes toward military issues, with women reporting less support for aggressive military options than do men. The cross cultural stability of gender differences in attitudes toward military issues was examined using data from 2,145 West Germans who reported opinions about the arms race, the German peace movement, and decisions made by President Reagan. The German data replicated the gender differences found in the United States, with German women expressing more peaceful opinions than did German men. A field experiment was conducted using 63 men and 38 women to examine whether this gender difference could be due to a lower interest by women in political issues and a tendency by men to comment on political issues despite an inadequate knowledge base. The results revealed that women with a high degree of knowledge about military issues were more likely to report attitudes in favor of disarmament than were men with a comparable level of knowledge. Women with low or moderate levels of knowledge, however, did not differ from men in their views. These data provide little support for the gender gap hypothesis. What appeared to be a pronounced difference in political attitudes now seems due to a high degree of "no opinion" responses from women. Only a minority of well-informed women were found to consistently show more peaceful attitudes than their male counterparts. (Author/NB) |
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| Item Description: | ERIC Document Number: ED286091. ERIC Note: Paper presented at the International Society of Political Psychology (Amsterdam, Netherlands, June 1986). |
| Physical Description: | 15 p. |