This thesis updates and expands upon the developmental theory of the gender gap in party and ideological identification originally posited by Norris and Inglehart (2000) to explain why women in advanced industrial nations are more likely to hold more leftist ideological identification than men. A comparative cross-national analysis using data from the World Values Survey (2004-2008) extends Norris and Inglehart's study, with an examination of the gender gap in advanced industrial, post-communist and developing nations. To further explore the nature of the gender gap in the United States, data from the American National Election Study (Cumulative File and 2012 cross-section) are used to explain the evolution of the ideological and partisan gender gap over time. Moreover, such a focus can also help explain any subnational difference in the gender gap in the two regions that have experienced a partisan realignment: the South toward the Republican party and the Northeast toward the Democratic party. Findings from the comparative analysis support the notion in advanced-industrial nations the gender gap has persisted, and indeed grown, with women identifying more with the left than men. This gender gap is robust as it remains significant even when utilizing a multivariate analysis to control for variables that measure social structure and cultural attitudes. However, in post-communist and developing nations a gender gap is less evident although some evidence shows that women in post-communist societies are experiencing a secular realignment and are slowly moving toward leftist ideological orientations. Findings from the analysis of the U.S. demonstrate little regional differences, with women in the South being more liberal and increasingly more Democratic, while women in the Northeast are also more liberal and increasingly Democratic in their party identifications.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:ucf.edu/oai:stars.library.ucf.edu:etd-5747 |
| Date | 01 January 2014 |
| Creators | Quick, Tiffany |
| Publisher | STARS |
| Source Sets | University of Central Florida |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | text |
| Format | application/pdf |
| Source | Electronic Theses and Dissertations |
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