The American Voter published 1956 data showing males to be more likely than females to conceptualize politics in abstract terms. This article extends that analysis through 1980, using data from the CPS National Election Studies. The aggregate gender differences in conceptualization persist throughout the entire period. Controls for education and political involvement fail to diminish the gender gap in conceptualization. However, for the 1972 to 1980 period, controlling for women's sex-role orientations substantially reduces male-female differences in conceptualization.
Get full access to this article
View all access options for this article.
References
1.
ABRAMSON, P. R.
(1981) “Comment on Smith.”Amer. Pol. Sci. Rev.75 (March): 146-149.
2.
ASHER, H. A.
(1980) Presidential Elections and American Politics.Homewood, IL: Dorsey.
3.
CAMPBELL, A.
, P. E. CONVERSE, W. R. MILLER, and D. E. STOKES (1960) The American Voter.New York: John Wiley.
4.
CONVERSE, P.E.
(1964) “The nature of belief systems in mass publics,” pp. 202-261 in D. E. Apter (ed.) Ideology and Discontent.New York: Macmillan.
5.
FIELD, J. O.
and R. G. ANDERSON (1969) “Ideology in the public's conceptualization of the 1964 election.”Public Opinion Q.13 (Fall): 380-398.
6.
HAGNER, P. R.
and J. C. PIERCE (1982) “Correlative characteristics of levels of conceptualizaton in the American public.”J. of Politics44: 779-807.
7.
HANSEN, S. B.
, L. M. FRANZ, and M. NETEMEYER-MAYS (1976) “Women's political participation and policy preferences,”Social Science Q.56 (March): 576-590.
8.
HERSHEY, M. R.
(1980) “Support for political woman: the effects of race, sex and sexual roles,” pp. 179-198 in J. C. Pierce and J. L. Sullivan (eds.) The Electorate Reconsidered.Beverly Hills, CA: Sage.
9.
HERSHEY, M. R.
(1977) “The politics of androgyny? Sex roles and attitudes toward women in politics.”Amer. Politics Q.5 (July): 261-287.
10.
INGLEHART, R.
(1977) The Silent Revolution.Princeton, NJ: Princeton Univ. Press.
11.
INGLEHART, R.
and H. D. KLINGEMANN (1979) “Ideological conceptualization and value priorities,” pp. 203-214 in S. H. Barnes and M. Kaase (eds.) Political Action.Beverly Hills, CA: Sage.
12.
JENNINGS, M. K.
and B. G. FARAH (1980) “Ideology, gender and political action: a cross-national survey,”British J. of Pol. Sci.10: 219-240.
13.
KELLEY, R. M.
and M. BOUTILIER (1978) The Making of Political Woman.Chicago: Nelson Hall.
14.
KLINGEMANN, H. D.
(1979a) “Measuring ideological conceptualizations,” pp. 215-254 in S. H. Barnes and M. Kaase (eds.) Political Action.Beverly Hills, CA: Sage.
15.
KLINGEMANN, H. D.
(1979b) “Ideological conceptualization and political action,” pp. 279-304 in S. H. Barnes and M. Kaase (eds.) Political Action.Beverly Hills, CA: Sage.
16.
KLINGEMANN, H. D.
(1979c) “The background of ideological conceptualization,” pp. 255-304 in S. H. Barnes and M. Kaase (eds.) Political Action.Beverly Hills, CA: Sage.
17.
LANSING, M.
(1974) “The American woman, voter and activist,” pp. 5-24 in J. Jacquette (ed.) Women in Politics.New York: John Wiley.
18.
MASON, K. O.
, J. L. CZAJKA, and S. J. ARBER (1976) “Change in U.S. women's sex-role attitudes, 1964-1974.”Amer. Soc. Rev.41 (August): 573-596.
19.
MILLER, W. E.
, A. H. MILLER, and E. J. SCHNEIDER (1980) American National Election Studies Data Sourcebook: 1952-1978.Cambridge, MA: Harvard Univ. Press.
20.
NIE, N. H.
, S. VERBA, and J. R. PETROCIK (1981) “Reply.”Amer. Pol. Sci. Rev.75 (March): 149-152.
21.
NIE, N. H.
, S. VERBA, and J. R. PETROCIK (1976) The Changing American Voter.Cambridge, MA: Harvard Univ. Press.
22.
NIEMI, R. G.
and H. F. WEISBERG [ed.] (1976) Controversies in American Voting Behavior.San Francisco: W. H. Freeman.
23.
PIERCE, J. C.
(1975) “The relationship between linkage salience and linkage organization in mass belief systems.”Public Opinion Q. (Spring): 102-110.
24.
PIERCE, J. C.
(1970) “Party identification and the changing role of ideology in American politics.”Midwest J. of Pol. Sci. (February): 25-42.
25.
PIERCE, J. C.
and P. R. Hagner (1982) “Conceptualization and party identification: 1956-1976.”Amer. J. of Pol. Sci.26: 377-387.
26.
PIERCE, J. C.
(1980) “Changes in the public's political thinking: the watershed years, 1956 to 1968,” pp. 69-90 in J. C. Pierce and J. L. Sullivan (eds.) The Electorate Reconsidered.Beverly Hills, CA: Sage.
27.
POMPER, G. M.
(1975) Voters' Choice.New York: Dodd, Mead.
28.
SAPIRO, V.
(1980) “News from the front: intersex and intergenerational conflict over the status of women.”Western Pol. Q.33 (June): 260-277.
29.
SMITH, R.A.N.
(1980) “The levels of conceptualization: false measures of ideological sophistication,”Amer. Pol. Sci. Rev.74 (September): 685-696.
30.
WELCH, S.
and P. SECRET (1981) “Sex, race and political participation,”Western Pol. Q.34(March): 5-16.
