Sexism, Context, and the Gender Gap in Support for Political Violence

Women are less supportive of political violence than men. However, the gender gap in support for political violence varies by context. In this paper, we examine how multiple contextual features affect the gender gap in support for political violence. Using the World Values Survey, we test between two competing expectations. Some argue that higher levels of gender equality reduce this gap in support for political violence. Others argue that men in more equal contexts will endorse political violence more than women in more egalitarian contexts, in part, as a way to curtail women's empowerment. We further examine whether respondent-level sexism can explain the gender gap in political violence at differing levels of societal gender equality. Using two survey experiments, we further investigate whether features of political violence - namely the act, the ideology of the perpetrator, the gender of the perpetrator, and respondent-level sexism - affect the gender gap in support for political violence within-country. These findings shed light on public opinion about political violence as well as the role gendered societal expectations play in the acceptability of political violence as a tactic.