Male warriors and worried women? Understanding gender and perceptions of security threats

Differences between women and men in perceptions of security threats are firmly established in public opinion research, with the “male warrior” and the “worried woman” two well documented stereotypes. Yet, we argue in this paper, the differences are not as well understood as such labels, or the search for explanations, imply. One reason for this is the lack of dialogue between public opinion research and feminist security studies. In bringing the two fields into conversation in analyzing mixed methods research data gathered in Britain, we suggest that while the extent of the gender gap in opinions of security is overstated, the gaps that do exist are more complex than previously allowed: men and women define “security” in slightly different ways; women tend to identify more security threats than men not necessarily because they feel more threatened but due to a greater capacity to consider security from perspectives beyond their own; women are more confident about government’s ability to deal with security threats in the future but not simply because of greater faith in government than men. This complexity implies a need to revisit assumptions, methods and analytical approaches in order to develop the field of gender and security further