Uncovering the Political Impacts of Gender: An Exploratory Study

TU YNDERSTANDING how women's lives shape their political attitudes and affect their policy orientations remains a significant challenge for today's social science. The different social experiences of women and men appear to affect not only individuals (Chodorow 1974; Weitzman 1975; Dinnerstein 1978; Brooks-Gunn and Matthews 1979; Gilligan 1982) but also institutions, through the design of hierarchical structures and through the application of particular governing rules and norms (Keller 1979; Ferguson 1984; Menkel-Meadow 1987). In an attempt to uncover the specific political impacts of socialized differences, political scientists have scrutinized female officials' voting behavior, support of women's issues, selfprofessed feminism, and family status, among other gender-related variables. However, scant attention has been given to examining how women's and men's differing world experiences might mold political attitudes and, ultimately, shape a broad range of policy outcomes rather than those centering around women's issues only. As a consequence, these approaches are neither adequate nor explicit in accounting for the impact of gender driven factors in the formation of public policy preferences. This exploratory study examines the relations among gender, policy preference, and policy formation. The first section begins by reviewing and contrasting current political and psychological approaches to assessing and interpreting differences. Following is a critique of political science methodologies as generally unsuitable for capturing the subtle complexities of differences. The second section links psychological theories of differences in moral decision making and the political context by creating two attitudinal constructs hypothesized as gender-related. Drawing