S/P/74. How do women and men differ in their social and political attitudes?

This essay argues that the evidence to suggest any truly significant differences in general attitudinal terms is scant and unconvincing, and that many apparent diverging characteristics and male and female political behaviour are in fact transient and contingent. To back up the argument, there is examination of typical characteristics where men and women are often perceived to be different. For example, levels of conservatism, political apathy and political moralism are all shown to be spuriously correlated on recent data. More important are social differences, i.e. types of political involvement and issue priorities.