GENDER DIFFERENCES IN REASONING ABOUT MILITARY-INTERVENTION

The question of gender associations with moral reasoning and values ha s received a great deal of attention since Gilligan first published In a Different Voice in 1982. Various authors have argued that women are less hierarchical, more relational, more caring, more empathetic, and more concerned about not harming others than men. Yet, these claims h ave been questioned by other scholars. Data from a small survey of col lege students are used to address this question. We found that in exam ining students' narrative justifications of their opinion on a particu lar question of military intervention, gender was related to the type of justification used in a manner consistent with the arguments of Gil ligan. We argue that ''objective'' tests are less likely to detect thi s difference than content analyses of narratives. The different bases of judgments have implications for political opinions as well as inter personal interactions.