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This research builds upon previous qualitative work, which explored whether men and women think about politics in different ways. Focus group findings strongly suggested that men and women use distinct frameworks when discussing political issues. Women were much more likely than men to raise issues of family and to evaluate policies with reference to people they knew; whereas men were more likely than women to discuss politics in an abstract depersonalised way. This research will fund an internet survey designed to test whether the qualitative findings were artefacts of women’s lower political interest or knowledge, or group interaction effects, such as men’s possible unwillingness to discuss children when with other men. The research will assess whether sub-groups of men and women form distinct ‘types’ of voters whose political preferences cannot be subsumed into one large model. The research itself will consist of a pilot survey with 2000 respondents, divided into subsets asked to respond to different versions of the instruments. The pilot will identify reliable measures that will be included in the main survey, of 4000 respondents. It is hoped that this research will provide an account of the underlying causes of gender differences in the way men and women weigh political issues and how they vote.

Award/Grant Outputs and Documents
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