Date of Award
12-1-2010
Degree Name
Master of Arts
Department
Political Science
First Advisor
Scott, McClurg
Abstract
Religion and gender have been found to play significant roles in shaping po- litical attitudes such as party identification and ideology. While much of the focus has been on the "religion gap" and the "gender gap," little empirical research has explored how religion affects the political attitudes of men and women differently. Using a 2004 Pew survey, this study examines how religion and gender interact to affect four different areas of President Bush's approval in 2004: general approval, economic policy approval, foreign policy approval, and social policy approval. The results support a "religious gender gap" theory, where the effect of gender on presi- dential approval varies across levels of religious commitment. For general, economic policy, and foreign policy approval, secular men and women are more similar on average than highly religious men and women. For social policy approval, highly religious men and women are more similar on average than secular men and women.
Access
This thesis is only available for download to the SIUC community. Current SIUC affiliates may also access this paper off campus by searching Dissertations & Theses @ Southern Illinois University Carbondale from ProQuest. Others should contact the interlibrary loan department of your local library or contact ProQuest's Dissertation Express service.