The Gender Gap: Is it Responsible for Nasty Politics?

[Glacier]

50 years ago women were slightly more conservative than men, but over time women have become much more liberal (or perhaps men have become more conservative) to the point that there are far too many men in right-leaning parties today and not enough women. This has in turn lead to nasty politics because men tend to get mean and aggressive when they aren't tempered by women.

[OREZ]

Naturally women are incapable of being mean. LOL

[Tacklewasher]

50 years ago women were slightly more conservative than men, but over time women have become much more liberal (or perhaps men have become more conservative) to the point that there are far too many men in right-leaning parties today and not enough women. This has in turn lead to nasty politics because men tend to get mean and aggressive when they aren't tempered by women.

where the hell do you come up with these things? Are you chanelling Thinktank or something?

[Glacier]

Politics has become more nasty over the past couple of decades, or so they say. Why do you think it has? I'm proposing a theory to answer that question.

90% of violent criminals are men, so it stands to reason that when one side of the political spectrum becomes mostly men, they will become more harsh and aggressive. Not all of them by any stretch of the imagination, but certainly more of them. With the exception of abortion and religion, women are more liberal than men on every economic and social issue, and especially on ones around "tough on crime" and "rehabilitation." This is further driving women away. Don't you think that some of the cowboy remarks from the Conservatives would be a little more reasonable if there were more women within the tent to temper the bombastic ideas?

[Tacklewasher]

Politics has become more nasty over the past couple of decades, or so they say. Why do you think it has? I'm proposing a theory to answer that question.

90% of violent criminals are men, so it stands to reason that when one side of the political spectrum becomes mostly men, they will become more harsh and aggressive. Not all of them by any stretch of the imagination, but certainly more of them. With the exception of abortion and religion, women are more liberal than men on every economic and social issue, and especially on ones around "tough on crime" and "rehabilitation." This is further driving women away. Don't you think that some of the cowboy remarks from the Conservatives would be a little more reasonable if there were more women within the tent to temper the bombastic ideas?

50 Years ago there were few women in politics. Maybe it's the women at fault for it becoming nastier.

See, I can pull useless theories out of my *bleep* as well.

How about we start by proving the assumption that politics is nastier than it was 50 years ago. Because I don't think you have proven that at all. Start by proving that before trying to explain it.

[Glacier]

That's not a useless theory, and certainly it's a good one. Almost every day I hear how Conservative attack ads are getting worse. It could very well be that they aren't, and that it's opposition that thinks they are. I don't know really.

[Veovis]

50 years ago women were slightly more conservative than men, but over time women have become much more liberal (or perhaps men have become more conservative) to the point that there are far too many men in right-leaning parties today and not enough women. This has in turn lead to nasty politics because men tend to get mean and aggressive when they aren't tempered by women.

I would have to question the scale of which was used to measure liberal 50 years ago vs now.

50 years ago women could be considered conservative as "men knew best" and men could be considered very very liberal for thinking women should be allowed to have a job and vote. (though allowed, just not accepted)

Weigh that against today and it just isn't in the same realm of measurement.

I think politics have always been dirty and nasty, we just make it a far larger public media spectacle and call it entertainment now.

[Lady tehMa]

As any girl who has ever navigated high school knows, few things are nastier than females with a grudge. It could very well be that women have had something of an effect on things, especially since fewer of us seem to properly "growing up" (maturing) nowadays. Or it could be the the media spinning everything into the do or die entertainment to keep us hooked. I avoid media where possible, I conduct myself (mostly) on my best behaviour. But that is just me.

[OREZ]

As any girl who has ever navigated high school knows, few things are nastier than females with a grudge. It could very well be that women have had something of an effect on things, especially since fewer of us seem to properly "growing up" (maturing) nowadays. Or it could be the the media spinning everything into the do or die entertainment to keep us hooked. I avoid media where possible, I conduct myself (mostly) on my best behaviour. But that is just me.

So many women have told me they would much rather work with men than women. I know it's anecdotal but there must be a reason for that.

[Glacier]

Well there you guys go shooting down my theory. I think you have laid out the argument well that women can be just as nasty, which pretty much puts water on that theory.

Veovis, what I mean about women being more conservative in the past is that of their voting patterns. In the states, for example, women favoured the Republicans over the Democrats while men favoured the Democrats. The gap was even wider in Europe. Then came Reaganomics and free trade, which had great appeal to men, but not for women. hence it seems that men jumped ship first over the Republicans, and women slowly migrated the other way. This is a gross generalization since both genders span the political spectrum.

There have been a number of studies that have looked into the reversal political changes of the genders. One studied noted that higher divorce rates have contributed in that men move the right after divorce while women go the opposite way.

Still other studies try to tie the shift with the feminism movement. In the end, the can't really do that, but they still come up the divorce thing again. Here is a Canadian study from a few years ago.

The shift started in the States back in the 1960s such that by the early 1970s there was a 5 point preference for Democrats over Republicans by women. This compares to German and Itally where women very much preferred the right wing parties.

Here is another study that looks and Europe and North America with lots of graphs. In the end they conclude that women are a mystery...

When women were first enfranchised it was anticipated by many contemporary
observers that they would vote as a bloc, thereby transforming party politics. In the
event, this did not happen. Nevertheless, even modest gender differences in the
electorate have often proved significant, and sometimes decisive, for the political
outcome. The modern gender gap is now an established feature of the American
political landscape although, despite the extensive body of research on the topic,
the precise reasons for this phenomenon continue to remain a puzzle.