Gender, War, and Politics

This research explores the gender gap amongst female and male voters and its correlation with the Democratic Party’s platform on foreign policy. The political orientation of women during the 1980’s reversed and shifted towards the left, and this research will investigate if this was caused by female voters’ opinions of the parties on their foreign policy platforms. The theory of conflict avoidance states females are more likely than males to avoid conflict, and this theory can be used to determine whether females feel more represented by the Democratic Party compared to the Republican Party. The foreign policy platform of the Democratic Party is typically more skeptical of the military and the use of armed forces and has a greater concern for diplomatic solutions and human rights, which could be more appealing to the female voter population if the conflict avoidance theory is considered. This research will examine if indeed females do tend to avoid conflict more than males and if so why, and if females are voting increasingly more as Democrats as a result of the Democratic Party’s foreign policy platform being less aggressive and geared more towards diplomacy than war