Gender Consciousness and Politics

by Rinehart,Sue Tolleson

• ISBN13: 9780415906852
• ISBN10: 0415906857
• Edition: 1st
• Format: Nonspecific Binding
• Copyright: 1992-10-22
• Publisher: Routledge

Summary

This book examines the emergence of gender consciousness among women as a significant force in American politics. The author bases her argument on an in-depth empirical analysis of data derived from the U.S. biennial National Election studies of 1974 to 1984, the year of the emergence of the so-called gender gap. The author discusses the fact that while feminism is central to womens' political orientation, the simple awareness of gender differences and group consciousness is a powerful force of change.

Table of Contents

List of Tales and Figures
Acknowledgments
Feminism, Analysis, and the Search for Meaning	p. 1
Variations on the theme of gender differences	p. 5
Political thought	p. 5
Empirical analysis	p. 11
The recurring strain of gender consciousness	p. 14
Gender consciousness and feminism	p. 14
Bridging behavior and theory	p. 16
Tracing an Elusive Concept	p. 19
Gender role socialization and political socialization: Real or implied convergence?	p. 21
Traditional assumptions and ironclad illusions	p. 21
Reconsidering gender and political socialization	p. 23
Gender consciousness	p. 27
Eleanor Roosevelt's paradox	p. 27
Consciousness as a political concept	p. 29
Defining gender consciousness	p. 32
Saying "We"	p. 34
Measuring Women's Identification With One Another	p. 35
Women's membership in the "group" of women	p. 36
Group identification and politics	p. 40
Are women a group?	p. 42
Does group membership mean group consciousness?	p. 45
Women's gender identification, 1972-1988	p. 49
Women's group closeness	p. 51
Demographic influences?	p. 55
The influence of indicators of lifespace	p. 56
The adult socialization environment	p. 58
A Last Look	p. 63
The Intersection of Gender Identification and Gender Role Ideology	p. 67
Beliefs about gender roles	p. 71
Probing gender identification	p. 78
Women's closeness to one another and their beliefs about gender roles	p. 78
Gender identification, gender ideology, and attitudes about women	p. 83
Abortion, religion, morality and gender consciousness	p. 88
Identification, gender role beliefs, and day-to-day life	p. 95
Demographic influences	p. 95
How does one's position in the life cycle matter?	p. 98
The socialization environment	p. 100
Seeing the picture in more detail	p. 106
Gender Consciousness and Political Engagement	p. 111
Some historical meanings of privatization to women's political roles	p. 115
From the Renaissance to Mary Wollstonecraft	p. 116
The "angel in the house": Victorian passionlessness and women's purity	p. 121
Seeing the patterns	p. 125
Gender consciousness, internal political resources, and political behavior	p. 127
Particular aspects of political engagement	p. 132
The shape of one's world and the articulation of one's political self	p. 139
Political Woman	p. 143
Gender Consciousness and Policy Preferences	p. 145
Ideology: Sophistication, naivete, or indifference?	p. 149
Consciousness and Policy	p. 153
The choice of policy preferences for analysis	p. 154
Differences in policy preferences	p. 158
Liberal ideology or consciousness?	p. 163
Consciousness: The connection of behavior to attitudes	p. 166
Some Concluding Thoughts	p. 169
Appendix	p. 173
Bibliography	p. 177
Author Index	p. 187
Subject Index	p. 191
Table of Contents provided by Blackwell. All Rights Reserved.