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The gender gap in comparative perspective
Author(s) -
JELEN TED G.,
THOMAS SUE,
WILCOX CLYDE
Publication year - 1994
Publication title -
european journal of political research
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 3.267
H-Index - 95
eISSN - 1475-6765
pISSN - 0304-4130
DOI - 10.1111/j.1475-6765.1994.tb00416.x
Subject(s) - eurobarometer , publics , ideology , citizenship , democracy , perspective (graphical) , sociology , gender studies , gender gap , social psychology , positive economics , political science , psychology , demographic economics , european union , politics , law , economics , artificial intelligence , computer science , economic policy
. Although the ‘gender gap’ in Western democratic publics has received an increasing amount of scholarly attention, one interesting anomaly has not been addressed. At the level of many specific issues, women appear to be more liberal than men. However, at the level of general ideological orientations, women are either more conservative, or there are no significant gender differences. We explore this disjuncture between levels of cognitive abstraction through the 1984 Eurobarometer data and conclude that the left‐right continuum appears to have a different meaning for men and for women. Women seem much more likely to regard the left‐right space as referring to ‘preservationist’ values of religion and cultural homogeneity, and men conceptualize the left‐right space in economic and ‘New Polities’ terms.