| Gender plays an important role in shaping attitudes, constraining roles, and perpetuating values. Historically women have been removed from the public and political environment, not allowed to vote, to freely work, and to attend educational institutions. Women's legal equality with men in most advanced societies has not eliminated the influence of gender, particularly in the political arena and the attitudes toward how women are supposed to act. Gender continues to influence how individuals form their own political and social attitudes. This dissertation explores how gender influences several different areas of public life with three distinct studies that each focus on the influence on gender. While each of the studies included in this dissertation is a separate and distinct study, each of them attempt to increase the knowledge regarding the role that gender has on attitudes and how diversity in different areas of society can influence attitudes of individuals. Do women have different attitudes toward policies than men, and what influence might these differences have on the political landscape and public policy in the United States? When women do become more integrated both in the workplace and also in political institutions what influence can this have on the structure and attitudes in the institution as well as in society in general?... |
