A Different Voice? Values and Attitudes of Women and Men toward Peace and Security Issues in a Comparative Perspective

The Israeli National Election Study (INES) that was carried out close to the 2013 elections, revealed that women expressed, on the one hand, hawkish attitudes more often than men with respect to increasing the defense budget, expressing consent to the establishment of a Palestinian state and evacuating settlements. They also expressed more concern of getting hurt by terrorism compared to men. On the other hand, women ranked the value of peace higher than men over other values, and preferred negotiation over increasing military power as a mean of preventing war between Israel and the Arabs. How can we resolve the apparent contradiction between the conventional wisdom that women are more peaceful than men, and the hawkish attitudes of women regarding national security and territorial concessions? In many countries there is, allegedly, empirical support for the notion that women are more dovish than men. However, a closer look reveals mixed empirical findings. This study focuses on the gender gap in values and attitudes on issues of security and peace. I argue that attitudes and values are two different dimensions and should be analyzed separately. This distinction will enable a better understanding of the "women and peace" hypothesis and its limitations and the context of issues dealing with peace and security in a comparative perspective through gendered lenses. In this regard, I use the World Values Survey and employ a quantitative analysis of questions on peace and security issues while focusing on the gender gap on those issues.