Focus On: The Gender Gap

The gender gap is older than Lysistrata. As far back as we have historical records, we have evidence that women were less enthusiastic about war than men, and more concerned with nurture: the provision of food, shelter, clothing and healing to children and men. Nevertheless, for complex reasons relating to the interdependence of women and men, women cooperated with war. Their anti-war ’votes ’ rarely counted in councils of state.’ In the last quarter of the twentieth century the gender gap has taken on a new character as women have dealt directly with their votelessness. This change owes much to suc-cessive waves of feminist movements in the