The gender gap in support for humanitarian interventions

Abstract

Much of the existing literature on the gender gap in support for war has focused on average differences between men and women. Little research has focused on variations in men’s and women’s support due to differing aspects of the situational context, such as regime change, economic interests, threat of terrorism, or humanitarian crisis. Previous research has suggested that gender differences are reduced when the objective of a military intervention is to promote human rights and stop a humanitarian crisis (Brooks and Valentino 2011; Eichenberg 2016, 2017), but the underlying reason for this finding remains elusive. In this article, I seek precisely such an explanation—values. Using original data from an experiment, I find that different values, such as militaristic and humanitarian values, mediate the gender gap, depending on the reason for intervention. These results add to the accumulation of knowledge on foreign policy attitudes, the gender gap, and values.