GENDER, FEMINIST CONSCIOUSNESS, AND WAR

In the post-World War II era, American women have been consistently le ss militaristic and more opposed to war than American men. Theorists, both feminist and not, have attributed such differences to gender itse lf, maternalism, and feminism. Drawing on the American National Electi on Study 1991 Pilot Study, we explore these hypotheses and discover no support for the maternalist explanation, some evidence in favor of th e feminist accounting, and substantial support for the gender explanat ion. We also probe into the structure of political thinking in these a reas and discover that the roots of women's and men's thinking usually differ even when they basically agree on the ''bottom line.'' In part icular, men's attitudes are much more partisan in their origins than a re women's.