This study argues that previous investigations of the gender gap have concentrated
almost exclusively on the behaviour of women voters and have underestimated the electoral
significance of men. Employing public opinion surveys and rational choice theory of coalitions,
it contends that men's voting behaviour is a key factor in modern elections and that by
investigating male voters as people affected by their gender, the gender gap can be better
explained. The study finds that the relative importance of the gender gap in Canada may be
declining as parties contending to form the government display less gender division in their
support, and significant gender differences in the 1997 election are found only in the more
extreme parties, like the New Democratic Party and, especially, the Reform Party. Significant
gender-related support for the Liberal Party is found to be concentrated in the Trudeau era. The
gender gap in Reform Party support is attributed to differences over capitalism, feminism and
the use of force. A theoretical model of gender block behaviour is developed using rational
choice theory, and the power of the male voting block is demonstrated. Cohesion, elasticity,
positioning, size and turnout are identified as important measures of block power, with cohesion
and elasticity the most important variable in the gender gap. The gender gap is shown to not be
an automatic advantage for women, and that sometimes it works against women's interests. The
final chapter discusses the effect of situational and socialisation constraints on attitutudes
towards violence, 'masculinized opportunity' and the reactionary backlash against feminism.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:LACETR/oai:collectionscanada.gc.ca:BVAU.2429/9058 |
| Date | 05 1900 |
| Creators | Steele, Andrew Morgan |
| Source Sets | Library and Archives Canada ETDs Repository / Centre d'archives des thèses électroniques de Bibliothèque et Archives Canada |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Electronic Thesis or Dissertation |
| Relation | UBC Retrospective Theses Digitization Project [http://www.library.ubc.ca/archives/retro_theses/] |
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