Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

War, Gender, And The Polarization Process: Gender As An Intervening Variable In Attitude Formation Toward Outgroups, Kristen Kay Dawson

All Graduate Plan B and other Reports, Spring 1920 to Spring 2023

War and the consequences of war have long been a subject of study in the field of political science. In addition, much debate and disagreement has centered around which factors are most important in determining the onset of war. Based on previous literature that has established fairly consistent gender differences with respect to the gendered role of warfare (Goldstein, 2001; Marini, 1990), I speculate that gender may also influence polarization attitudes, which are thought to act as precursors to war. Whenever the attitudes of ingroups rapidly polarize and their members become extremely fearful of an outgroup, begin to dehumanize outgroup …