THE IDEOLOGY OF GENDER: A CROSS-NATIONAL ANALYSIS.

The article uses exploratory factor analysis to examine nine questions in the survey, which on substantive grounds, appeared to tap feminist orientations. It begins by setting forth two explanations for the gender gap. The first explanation held that on issues, which have a differential impact on men and women, the two groups would pursue different policy options for instrumental reasons. One also notes, however, that this line of explanation is of limited utility in exploring gender differences beyond the relatively narrow domain of gender self-interest. The second explanation held that men and women will differ in their policy preferences not because of the nature of the issue, nor because of their gender per se, but because they are lodged disproportionately in particular segments of the population, segments that have different socially grounded interests that encourage distinctive policy orientations across a wide issue domain. The linkage between gender and politics is often limited to an analysis of the political preferences women and men bring to public affairs. However, support for women's issues is an attitudinal orientation that neither includes all women nor is it limited to women. Using attitudinal survey data gathered from a gender-stratified sample of 1,124 youth elites in the United States and Canada, this article examines how dispositions towards the status of women operate as an attitudinal divide across a variety of policy domains.