Gender and American Politics: Women, Men, and the Political Process

Annotation Gender matters in American politics, sometimes in obvious ways and sometimes in ways rarely noticed. As manifested in the gender gap, it inflects political attitudes and behaviors, resulting in distinctive patterns of difference and similarity in the opinions and voting behaviors of men and women. It plays a role in public policy decision-making on a wide variety of issues, not only those related to reproduction. Finally, and sometimes very subtly, gender and gendered assumptions influence the operation of government institutions from the Congress to the cabinet to the courtroom, and the ways these institutions are changing over time. This path-breaking collection systematically explores the role of gender in American political life. Now updated and expanded for more complete coverage, paralleling the organization of a U.S. politics course, the book presents a full complement of empirical studies of real and imagined gender gaps. New to this edition are chapters on the media, legislative behavior, foreign policy, and the future of the gender dimenstion in American politics.