Gender Differences in Public Policy Attitudes

Persistent differences between men and women in regard to their public policy attitudes have been found by various researchers. In this article, a state-wide survey in Pennsylvania is used to compare attitudes of men and women in the state with those at the national level. Using these data, three hypotheses frequently offered to explain attitude differences are subjected to evaluation. The major finding is that the male-female differences in policy attitudes may be related both to the sex-role behaviors leamed by children and to economic conditions experienced in later life.