Emotionally Evocative Women: The Influence of Women Suicide Bombers on the American Public

Women’s participation in the extra-institutional activity of terrorism has received much coverage recently. How does the public react to media portrayals of terrorists? Do reactions vary by the sex of the respondent and/or the sex of the perpetrator? Do reactions influence public policy preferences and participation as related to security matters? With the upswing of women's participation in terrorist groups, this paper asks whether and why the violent actions of women terrorists in particular evoke anger, fear, anxiety, and/or sadness in women and men respondents in the United States. In turn, we examine the way in which emotional reactions influence policy preferences. Research indicates that terrorism makes all people feel fear and vulnerability; however, actions undertaken by women terrorists (and particularly those who are mothers) anger the public because women terrorists transgress gender expectations. Alternatively, women terrorists (and those who are mothers) may evoke sadness among respondents, as women terrorists often are seen as victims, manipulated by men. Using a survey experiment, we ask respondents to react to news stories about authorities thwarting a suicide terrorist attack, conducted by a perpetrator identified as a man, a woman, a father, or a mother. While women respondents react more emotionally to the terrorist scenarios we presented to them, the sex and gender representations of the terrorists do not produce consistent results related to respondents' emotional reactions nor to respondents' policy preferences. In fact, our findings contradict some commonly held beliefs in the literature related to women’s policy preferences regarding terrorism and the emotionally evocative nature of women suicide bombers. Thus, when women participate in terrorism, the result of this activity on public opinion is more complex than currently argued. This suggests that a more nuanced understanding of the relationship between violent political participation, public opinion, sex, and gender is needed.