The Gender Gap and Attitudes Towards Economic Development Strategies Among Midwestern Adults

Abstract

Data and analysis are presented testing the argument that poverty and social position account for an important difference between men and women in political attitudes. The opening of the gender gap in politics coincided with the opening of the poverty gap. Gender politics are as much class as gender. Hypotheses are tested using 4-way ANOVA. One hypothesis is that income, gender, and age combine to explain voting in the 1988 presidential election where age is used in combination with income and gender to reflect social position. A second hypothesis tests attitudes on issues not apparently reflecting gender association to see whether gender divisions exist. Attitudes toward government subsidized economic development strategies are used as the issue area not obviously gender related.