Southern Women: Southern Belle or American Woman?

Transcription

1 Southern Women: Southern Belle or American Woman? Robin Smith PSC 499 Word Count: 7288 Abstract This paper bridges studies in southern politics, southern culture, and the gender gap in an attempt to first determine if the gender gap that is present in American politics is also present in the South between men and women in regards to certain social and foreign policy concerns. This is then extended to measure whether the views of southern women on identical social issues are the same, or different, as the views of women in other regions of the country. After determining the views of southern women compared to that of women in other regions based on social issues the question then turns to foreign policy issues to see if the same trend concerning domestic social issues is also extended to the realm of foreign policy. The data is then used to see if these trends vary based on age to see if younger southern women hold the same views as there older southern counterparts.

2 Smith 1 Introduction: While the Civil War placed the South against the North, today the South is still considered as a distinct region from the rest of the country. This is due to the South s adamancy in preserving its unique cultural heritage. Being southern has traditionally been viewed as appearing more rural, less educated, and less middle class than one is (Reed 1972, 83). But being southern has also been framed to include having a more family oriented perspective, showing a greater degree of religiosity, and holding more traditional values. Studies on the South indicate that the culture in the South that has emerged from these traits proves region still plays a dominant role in the United States and impacts the way citizens view certain issues. This is seen in the number of research methods where region is automatically coded as South v. non-south without any indication as whether the case of regional and cultural distinctiveness still holds true. Southern culture and politics is an understudied subject as seen in most research that automatically distinguishes the South from other regions in the country, this holds true even more when considered in the aspect of southern women. It is important to know how Southern women feel on important policy questions, such as abortion, as the South becomes more of a battleground during elections. For example, in the 2008 presidential elections North Carolina was a key battleground state that President Obama won, the first democrat to win election in that state since Jimmy Carter. Florida and Texas also are important southern states due to the large number of electoral votes each contains. Research in this subject area can clue politicians as to how to address the electorate as southern women may be different than women in other regions of the country. Research

3 Smith 2 in this field is also important as President Obama attempts to pass controversial legislation like healthcare while facing reelection in This paper blends the literature from the two fields of southern politics and culture with studies on the gender gap in an attempt to see how the opinions of southern women are influenced by southern culture, southern politics, and the differences that the gender gap entails. This paper bridges the three studies in an attempt to first determine if the gender gap that is present in American politics is also present in the South between men and women in regards to certain social and foreign policy concerns. This is then extended to measure whether the views of southern women on identical social issues are the same, or different, as the views of women in other regions of the country. After determining the views of southern women compared to that of women in other regions based on social issues the question then turns to foreign policy issues to see if the same trend concerning domestic social issues is also extended to the realm of foreign policy. The data is then used to see if these trends vary based on age to see if younger southern women hold the same views as there older southern counterparts. Literature Review: The research shows that the South remains a distinct cultural entity and will stay that way for a long time to come. This is attributed to the fact that not only do nonsoutherners view the South as unique, but southerners frame themselves as different from the rest of the country. Reed attributes this difference in part to the assimilation, or lack

4 Smith 3 thereof, of mass culture. The South is more resistant to the culture of mass society and therefore is viewed differently (Reed 1972, 90). Southerners are anticipated, by themselves and by non-southerners, to be more sociable and religious, as well as hold more traditional values in regards to both moral and gender issues. (Sechrist et al., 2007, S388; Powers et al., 2003, 42). Hurlbert observed the distinctiveness of southerners by comparing attitudes and beliefs of non-southerners to southerners. He rated this on five dimensions: 1. Use and approval of violence 2. Conservative political attitudes 3. Conservative racial attitudes 4. Conservative attitudes toward women 5. Conservative moral and religious attitudes (1989, ) After combining the findings of racial attitudes and attitudes toward women, Hurlbert found that three of the five factors he used showed a distinct variance; only use and approval of violence did not have a significant difference (1989, 251). He was also able to conclude that these findings were stronger among older than among younger respondents. (262). Older southerners may be more traditional than their younger counterparts as seen in that traditional views are declining across the nation, including in the South (Rice and Coates 1995, 754). People in the South, however, continue to embrace more conservative views than the rest of the country (Powers et al., 2003, 41). This is evident when gender role attitudes are studied in the South. Rice and Coates found that southerners were more

5 Smith 4 likely to think women should refrain from taking jobs outside the home and responded more conservatively 37 times out of 40 times in questions regarding women in politics (Rice and Coates 1995, 751). For Whites in the South it is quite probable that these opinions emerge out of the southern belle mentality that has painted the picture of the southern lady as being devoted to God and her family, essentially having to be focused within the home (746). Even during the 1920 s when women began to gain more political rights the image of the southern woman was slow to die, to both men and women, as women in the South were hesitant to embrace many of the opportunities available, such as working outside the home (Scott 1970, 221). The idea of the southern woman helps reinforce the idea of southern regional distinctiveness. In a study on mother and adult-child relations, Sechrist et al. concluded that southerners reported greater emotional closeness with their mothers (S390). Even after controlling for other factors that contribute to southern culture, like religiosity, religious attendance, and education, the findings indicated region had an effect on gender role attitudes. While traditionalism is an element in southern culture, the culture extends pass this to also include basic regional differences (S391). Region is significant in American culture because religion varies from region to region within the United States. The South is viewed as more religious than other parts of the country by residents in the region and those outside the region. Silk makes a great example of this in his study on Religion and Region in American Public Life. He states that in most areas of the country a two-to-one ratio is found so twice as many people claim a religious identity as are claimed by a religious organization. The one exception is

6 Smith 5 the South, where the ratio is three to one (Silk 2005, 266). Southerners also have a more conservative stance to issues such as gay marriage and abortion due to the prevalence of religion in the region. The evangelical Christian tradition in the South has consequences for southern politics. Evangelicalism contains within it a powerful willingness to take on the world and change it according to its own lights (Silk 2005, 269). This fueled the rise of the Christian Coalition and is a huge part of today s Christian Right in the Republican Party. In the 2000 election in each of the regions Bush won, including the South, moral values were the prominent issue. The presence of the Republican Party in southern politics, however, has not always been the case. V. O. Key Jr. observed in the 1940 s that the politics of the South revolves around the position of the Negro (Key 1949, 5). This meant that almost all southerners voted with the Democratic Party. This was until the northern opposition from the Democrats emerged around the time of the Civil Rights Movement and southern Democrats began exploring the possibility of aligning with more conservative political groups such as northern and western Republicans (Black and Black 2002, 54). As these alliances began to occur southerners began to switch their party loyalties from Democratic to Republican. In the 1980 election Ronald Reagan, Republican from California, represented this new merge. Reagan appealed to southern voters by attacking Carter s foreign policy preferences. Almost three-fourths of southern white voters had the same vision as Reagan of seeing the United States using more force in regards to the Soviet Union and this helped Reagan win the election that year (Brown and Brown 2002, 214). Reagan also

7 Smith 6 succeeded in drawing a new base for the Republican Party by appealing to and winning votes from white religious conservatives in the South. While many southerners had been attracted to the Republican Party because of its conservative stance on racial and economic issues, Reagan in the 1980 s brought a considerable number of conservatives on the religious right into the fold of the Republican Party (227). At the core of conservative Republicanism is an opposition to the growing size and cost of the federal government, a philosophy the South is very familiar with. One of the main issues of the Confederacy during the Civil War was the idea of strong state governments and a weak central government. This made the transformation of Southern politics seem more acceptable and necessary. Bill Clinton s healthcare proposal during his presidency energized southern Republicans who opposed increasing the size of the federal government. As a result of this, in the 1994 elections Republicans made significant gains in both Senate and Congressional races, known as the Republican Revolution. The solid Democratic South has not vanished completely and neither has a solid Republican South emerged (Brown and Brown 2002, 3). Southerners identify more with the Republican Party on many major issues, but many states in the South remain a battleground during elections. In identifying the way southern culture and politics impact the opinions of southern women, it is also important to look at the gender gap in American politics to distinguish why women hold the values that they do. An intricate interplay of biology and sociology helps explain why women have different opinions than men on certain key issues including violence, moral questions, and the role of government (Smith 1984,

8 Smith 7 385). The biological factor contends that men and women are innately different, thus having differences of opinions and various views of the world because it is in their nature to do so. The sociological factor deals with the way women are raised to assume the roles of caretaker and nurturer. Women are assumed to accept war less and favor government aid programs more because of their motherly instincts and overall since of helping and nurturing (Shapiro and Mahajan 1986, 45). Another factor that makes up the gender gap is the rise of a women s political consciousness (Shapiro and Mahajan 1986, 45). The work of Powers et al. shows that the gender role attitudes of women are more egalitarian than those of men in areas including the political arena (Powers et al. 2003, 41). Women s concerns, according to Shapiro and Mahajan, blend economic liberalism, government activism, and traditional social conservatism to form a woman s political agenda (Shapiro and Mahajan 1986, 53). As women have become more politically conscientious they have become increasingly involved in supporting these issues, in ways that often differ from men. According to Conover and Sapiro women are, in the abstract, more afraid and less supportive of war and foreign involvement than men and this is most pronounced by emotional responses (1993, 1095). Women are also more supportive of government programs, such as universal health insurance, than are men and women tend to be more religious, thus holding stricter standards concerning abortion and gay marriage. These three factors of the gender gap, Southern politics, and the distinctiveness of Southern culture give insight on how the opinions of women in the South, concerning domestic and foreign policy issues, are constructed. All three have some influence on

9 Smith 8 how women feel about these issues. Southern women are impacted by the region they live in and the culture that persist there, as well as by the political spectrum in the South. Furthermore, basic issues concerning the differences between women and men shape how these women respond to certain matters. These studies help in creating hypotheses concerning how beliefs of women in the South will differ from the attitudes of women residing in other regions of the country. Hypothesis and Expectations: 1. Gender gap in South: The gender gap will be present in the South, but will be less pronounced, both on the social and foreign policy concerns, than in other regions of the country. Gender gap research shows that women tend to be more caring and nurturing than men, more family oriented, and more religious. In the South studies have shown that this is even more so the case as southerners reported greater emotional closeness with their mothers (Sechrist et al. 2007, S390) and the South has a more distinct religious tradition. Thus the impact of religion on southern women, as well as a woman s nature, will lead to differences on social issues with women being more conservative on issues such as abortion and gay marriage. Women are also less prone to violence and more likely to oppose war than men indicating that a difference will also be present in the foreign policy realm. I anticipate the gender gap will be less pronounced in the South due to the wide presence of evangelicalism and a large identification with the Republican

10 Smith 9 Party both of which lead followers to oppose abortion and gay marriage. Both of these issues are important morally to evangelical Christians as a whole, whether male or female. Evangelicals also look to politics as a way to spread the message of the gospel thus advocating a more interventionist approach in foreign policy. Republicans also support the Iraq War and keeping Guantanomo Bay running at a higher rate than do Democrats and the South is viewed as identifying with the Republican Party more. Thus the divide on these issues will be less apparent in the South than in the rest of the country. 2. Social issues (abortion and gay marriage): Women in the South will be less supportive of abortion and gay marriage than are women in other areas of the country. One of the reasons the South is recognized as a distinct region is due to a culture of traditionalism in moral attitudes (Powers et al. 2003, 42). According to literature on Southern culture, that views the South as a more religious region, women in the South would have more conservative views towards abortion and gay marriage than women in other areas of the nation (Silk 2005, 266). Gender gap research has concluded that women have consistently tended to uphold conservative values at an average higher than men (Shapiro and Mahajan 1986, 52). Many evangelicals in the South have joined the Republican Party through the Christian Coalition by supporting traditional values on moral issues. All three of these factors would thus indicate that women in the South should hold conservative opinions on both of these social issues at a higher rate than other women.

11 Smith Foreign policy issues (Iraq and Guantanamo Bay): Women in the South will be more supportive than women in other regions of the country of keeping military troops in Iraq and more likely to view Guantanamo Bay as fair. Republicans have been more supportive of the Iraq War and Guantanamo Bay than Democrats have been, as can be seen in the 2008 elections when President Obama promised to close down the detainment facility. This is also the case because the war was begun by a Republican and not a Democrat. Many southerners joined the Republican Party in the 1980 s following Reagan s promise to implement a stricter foreign policy stance (Brown and Brown 2002, 214) and thus it seems southern women will support Iraq and Guantanamo at a higher rate than other American women. The South also consists of a large number of evangelicals, who often identify with the Republican Party, that within their doctrine consist a powerful willingness to take on the world and change it according to its own lights (Silk 2005, 269). Therefore it would seem that evangelicals would have a more interventionist stance towards foreign policy and support Iraq and view Guantanamo Bay as fair at higher rates. Because the South is assumed to consist of more Republicans and evangelicals previous research leads to the conclusion that southern women should be more supportive of these foreign policy issues. 4. Younger v. older Southern women: Younger southern women will not be as conservative as older southern women, but will still hold more traditional values than other young women in different areas of the country.

12 Smith 11 Rice and Coates concluded that conservative gender attitudes were found more in the South than elsewhere although these traditional views are receding in every region of the country (Rice and Coates 1995, 754). Powers et al. also concluded that Southerners continue to hold more traditional attitudes that those held in other regions of the country (Powers et al. 2003, 41). The gap between younger and older Southern women who oppose abortion and gay marriage and support the Iraq war and Guantanamo Bay should thus be smaller in the South than in other regions of the country. The percentage of those women who oppose these social issues and support the foreign policy issues should also be higher for younger southern women than other women elsewhere. Methods: A 2004 survey from the American National Election Studies (ANES) was used to measure views towards abortion and gay marriage. The survey was given to over 1200 people, 53% of which were female and 47% male. The questions from the survey asked respondents if they favored using government funds for abortion with responses consisting of favor strongly, favor not strongly, oppose strongly, oppose not strongly, don t know, and refuse to answer. The question was recoded so responses consisted of favor, oppose, don t know, and refuse to answer. The other question asked respondents what their position on gay marriage was with answers being should be allowed to marry, should not be allowed to marry, don t know, and refuse. Other variables that were recoded included age, party, and region. Age of respondent was an open ended question that was recoded here into four groups: under 30

13 Smith 12 years of age, 30-44, 45-64, and Political party was also recoded to encompass Democrat, Republican, and Independent. Region was recoded from Northeast, North Central, South, and West to indicate the South v. the non-south. Variables used to study these questions consisted of gender, region, age, party, and evangelical or non-evangelical. First the data was split according to gender and region to determine the gender gap in the South compared to the non-south on the issues of abortion and gay marriage. This also showed the differences of women in the South and the non-south on opposing abortion and gay marriage without controlling for other variables. The data was then split controlling for party. This analysis showed the differences between southern Republican women and their Republican counterparts in other regions of the country. The same procedure was used for the question of evangelicals allowing a comparison for southern female evangelicals to female evangelicals elsewhere. The data was then divided to see the differences between female, republican, evangelicals in the South and non-south. Finally, the data was divided based on gender, region, and age to see the gap between younger and older women in both the southern region and the non-south in their opinions on these two social issues. The two foreign policy questions came from a September 2008 survey administered by the Pew Research Center for the People and the Press. The survey was administered to almost 3000 people, 51.5% were females and 48.5% males. 36.3% of the surveys were given to people residing in the South. The two questions used here to measure foreign policy involved the current war in Iraq and the issue of the detainment prison at Guantanamo Bay Cuba. The question concerning Iraq asked respondents if the

14 Smith 13 United States should keep troops in Iraq until the situation has stabilized or do you think the U.S. should bring its troops home with responses consisting of keep troops, bring troops home, don t know/refused to answer. The question referring to Guantanamo Bay asked respondents if the governments policies to the prisoners held there were fair or unfair, with the third option being don t know/refused to answer. Other questions looked at in the dataset were on gender, party affiliation, evangelical or non evangelical, region, and age. Answers to the question of party affiliation consisted of republican, democrat, independent, no preference, other party, or don t know/refused to answer. To determine whether a person was evangelical or not the question was asked to the respondent of whether you would describe yourself as a born again or evangelical Christian with responses being yes I would, no I wouldn t, or don t know/refused to answer. The question for region asked for the census region of the respondent. This question was recoded to determine the South from the non-south. Age was an open ended question that was recoded to contain four groups: under 30, 30-44, 45-64, and over 65. As with the ANES dataset, this data was first split by gender and region to determine the gender gaps that exist within the South and the rest of the country in regards to the two issues of the war in Iraq and Guantanamo Bay. This also showed the split in the opinions of southern women compared to women elsewhere without controlling for any other variables. The data was split controlling for political party to determine the views of southern republican women compared with republican women in other regions of the country. The opinions of female evangelicals in the South were

15 Smith 14 compared to evangelical women elsewhere in the country by using the born again question. The data was then split with a combination of these three variables to determine the views of republican, evangelical women in the South and non-south on these two foreign policy issues. The data was lastly divided by gender, region, and age to see the age gap in the South and the non-south that comes from these two questions. This was also used to compare the views of young southern women to their non-southern counterparts. Findings and analysis: First it was important to determine from the data the differences in the percentages of Republicans and evangelicals in the South, as in previous research these two groups were thought to have significantly greater numbers in the southern region of the United States. In the case of the Republican Party this was not true as there was not even a whole percentage point difference in the number of Republicans in the South compared to the non-south.

16 Smith 15 In terms of evangelical Christians there was a significant difference in the percent of evangelicals in the South versus the non-south. The South contained over 20% more evangelicals than the rest of the country.

17 Smith 16 While the Christian Right is a major player in the Republican Party today, the greater number of evangelicals present in the South has not attributed to a higher number of Republicans in the South when compared with the rest of the country. Hypothesis 1: The gender gap will be present in the South, but will be less pronounced, both on the social and foreign policy concerns, than in other regions of the country. In regards to the issue of abortion this hypothesis was wrong- As the graph shows, there was a bigger gender gap in the South than the non-south over the issue of abortion. The gender gap in the South was around 10% while in the non- South it was only around 3%. In controlling for political party, the gender gap followed the same trend in regards to Republican men and women in the South and the non-south. In controlling for evangelicalism the trend continued. While female evangelicals in the non-south opposed abortion at 5% less than men in the non-south, female evangelicals in the South opposed abortion at 10% higher the rate than evangelical men. In the South it

18 Smith 17 seems that the greater presence of evangelicals would unite men and women more closely on this issue than men and women in the rest of the country. Rather, the opposite is true as the gender gap is higher in the South. On the issue of gay marriage this hypothesis was correct- Males in both the South and the non-south opposed gay marriage at a higher rate than females with the difference in the South only being around 2.5% and the difference in the non-south slightly higher at about 5%. It is interesting to note that men opposed gay marriage at higher rates in both the South and non-south than did women. Previous research showed that women in general, and in the South particularly, hold more traditional and family oriented values than men and are more religious. When political party was controlled for the same results occurred with a bigger gap. In the non-south male Republicans opposed gay marriage 7% higher than females while in the South females opposed the issue at a rate of 4.5% higher than males. So the gender gap in

19 Smith 18 regards to party was also more pronounced in the non-south. When controlling for evangelicalism the findings support the hypothesis even more. The difference in the non- South was 13% with male evangelicals opposing gay marriage more. In the South the percentage difference was around 8% with men also opposing the issue at a higher rate than women. In regards to both foreign policy issues- The chart above shows the gender gap in regards to those who felt the United States should keep troops in Iraq. The gender gap in the South over this issue was 3.6% higher than the gender gap in the non-south. On the question of Guantanamo Bay being fair the difference in the gender gaps was insignificant at only 1% higher in the South. When political party was controlled for, however, the hypothesis was correct because the gender gap in the South was less pronounced. Male and female Republicans in the non-south had a gender gap at 14.4% while the gender gap between men and women of the

20 Smith 19 Republican Party in the South was 6% smaller. The same was true when looking at the issue of Guantanamo Bay. On this question the data really proved the hypothesis correct as the gender gap in the non-south was 18.2% while in the South the gender gap was much smaller at only 2.5%. The opposite occurred when controlling for whether or not a person was born again. On both foreign policy issues the difference in the gender gap among evangelicals was higher in the South by around 6% on the issue of Iraq and 9% concerning Guantanamo Bay. The gender gap was present in the South and was less pronounced on the issue of gay marriage even when controlling for party and evangelicals. The gender gap was also slightly less pronounced on the foreign policy issues when party was controlled for. On the issue of abortion, Iraq, and Guantanamo Bay the hypothesis was wrong and the gender gap was more pronounced in the South. This held especially true for the issue of Guantanamo Bay when controlling for evangelicalism. Even though the South is viewed as a distinct region with a high presence of evangelicals, this does not lessen the gender gap that exists on important and controversial issues. In many cases the gender gap seems to be greater in the southern region than in the rest of the nation. Hypothesis 2: Women in the South will be less supportive of abortion and gay marriage than are women in other areas of the country. As the chart below shows, without controlling for any other variables this hypothesis was true for both issues. This reinforces earlier studies that women in the South hold more traditional values than women in other areas of the country (Powers et al., 2003, 41).

21 Smith PERCENT SOUTH NON-SOUTH ABORTION GAY MARRIAGE Controlling for political party, Republican women in the South also opposed abortion and gay marriage at higher rates than their Republican counterparts in other regions of the country. Southern Republican women opposed government funds to pay for abortions at around 4% higher than republican women in the non-south. On the issue of gay marriage the percentage difference was more significant with 81% of southern Republican women opposing allowing gays and lesbians to marry as compared to only 67.3% of Republican women in the non-south not in favor of gay marriage. Due to the higher number of evangelicals in the south, the presumed southern culture that clings to more traditional values, and the idea that women hold more conservative moral values than men, it would appear that the trend found so far would continue when controlling for evangelicalism. Previous theory would show that southern women would oppose abortion and gay marriage at a higher rate than non-southern women who are evangelicals. This was not the case, however, as southern and non-

22 Smith 21 southern female evangelicals had very similar opinions of these social issues as the chart below shows PERCENT SOUTH NON-SOUTH ABORTION GAY MARRIAGE Even though there are about 20% more evangelicals in the South than the rest of the country, evangelical women tend to have the same opinions on abortion and gay marriage no matter what part of the country they are from. When the last two variables were combined to determine how Republican, evangelical women in the South and non-south compare the findings on abortion were also unique and proved the hypothesis incorrect. These women in the non-south opposed abortion at a higher percentage than southern women with a difference of about 4%. In regards to gay marriage southern women opposed it more than non-southern women with the percentages being 91.1% to 84.4%, respectively. This data shows that evangelicalism is not the reason southern women view these issues more conservatively. The difference comes into play when controlling for party. While evangelicals oppose these social issues at similar rates, whether in the South or not, Republican women in the South compared to

23 Smith 22 other areas of the country are more opposed to abortion and gay marriage. This is perhaps attributable to distinctiveness in southern culture and a tendency in the South to hold more traditional values on moral issues. Hypothesis 3: Women in the South will be more supportive than women in other regions of the country of keeping military troops in Iraq and more likely to view Guantanamo Bay as fair. Differences on the foreign policy issues were less pronounced than the differences discovered on the social issues. PERCENT IRAQ GUANTANAMO SOUTH NON-SOUTH Without controlling for other variables women in the South were actually slightly less likely to favor keeping troops in Iraq. On the issue of Guantanamo Bay women did think the practices there were fair at a higher rate than women who were not in the South, but again the difference was not that great. When controlling for political party on the issue of Iraq Republican women in the non-south were still slightly higher in favor of keeping

24 Smith 23 troops on the ground than were Republican women in the southern region. When controlling for party the same results occurred for the issue of Guantanamo Bay as when party was left out. Republican women in the South viewed the detainment facility as fair at about a 5% higher rate than republican women not from the South, the same percentage that was found when party was not controlled for. When asking these two questions and controlling for evangelicalism the results showed that evangelical women in the non-south favored keeping troops in Iraq at a higher rate (4% higher) than evangelical females in the South. This is divergent from the existing literature that proposes evangelicals would have a more interventionist approach towards foreign policy as they see it as their goal to change the world according to their own beliefs (Silk 2005, 269). On the issue of Guantanamo Bay there was no difference in the percentage of evangelical women in the South or non-south who viewed the prison as fair. The results for both were at 49.2% so in this case the hypothesis was also inaccurate as there was no difference in opinion between southern women and non-southern women. When combining evangelicalism and republicanism to look at women in the South and non-south, the same findings that occurred when controlling for evangelicalism existed. Non-southern women favored keeping troops in Iraq at a higher rate than southern women and the percentages were the same concerning the issue of Guantanamo Bay. It is interesting that southern women consistently opposed keeping troops on the ground in Iraq, even when party and evangelicalism were controlled for, at a higher rate than their non-southern counterparts. Existing literature posits that because of the spread of republicanism in the South and the higher percentage of evangelicals in the region that

25 Smith 24 support for the war would be higher. Women in the South, however, did not conform to that here. Southern Republicans and evangelicals acted differently than those who were not southern, but not in the way it was assumed they would act. Hypothesis 4: Younger southern women will not be as conservative as older southern women, but will still hold more traditional values than other young women in different areas of the country. Social Issues: The table below shows that young women in the non-south opposed abortion more than young women in the South which was counter to the hypothesis and refutes previous studies that stated while traditional values were declining in all areas of the country that this is not occurring as much in the South (Rice and Coates 1995, 754, Powers et al., 2003, 41). The age gap in the South between the most conservative group (45-65 years of age) and the younger group was also bigger than in the non-south showing that on the issue of abortion the decline of traditional values has occurred at a higher rate in the South. AGE SOUTH NON-SOUTH UNDER 30 55% 58.5% % 54.4% % 55.4% OVER % 64%

26 Smith 25 On the issue of gay marriage the percentage of young southern women who opposed gay marriage was higher than the percentage of young non-southern women who also opposed it as was consistent with the expectations. AGE SOUTH NON-SOUTH UNDER % 43.9% % 45.6% % 50.6% OVER % 68% The interesting finding here, as shown in the table, is the age gap in the South compared to the non-south. The age gap in the South is 4% higher than in the non-south. So while young southern women do hold a slightly more conservative view on the issue of gay marriage than their young non-southern counterparts, the decline in conservatism on this issue in the South has been greater than in the non-south. Foreign Policy Issues: On the issue of the war in Iraq young women in the non-south were twice as likely to support keeping troops in the country as were young women in the South.

27 Smith 26 AGE SOUTH NON-SOUTH UNDER % 31.9% % 40.6% % 51.5% OVER % 43.6% This finding is interesting for several reasons. While the percentage in the older group and the younger group should show a decrease, the amount in the difference of opinion between younger and older southern women is significant. Between the over 65 category and the under 30 category is a difference of 28.6%. If analyzed from the most conservative group of older southern women (those between the ages of 45 and 64) the difference increases to 36.1%. In contrast the age gap in the non-south in only 11.7% and increases to only 19.6% when viewed from the age group. When comparing southern women to women in the rest of the country, and in controlling for the variables of party identification and evangelicalism, on the question of keeping troops on the ground in Iraq southern women were less supportive of allowing troops to remain in the country but only by small percentages, a huge difference than what is seen in young southern women here. The South is viewed as more traditional, more republican, and more evangelical and studies have shown that opinion changes slower over time in the South than in the rest of the nation. This would mean that young southern women should support the war and keeping troops in Iraq at a higher number than young women elsewhere, but this is

28 Smith 27 certainly not the case. These statistics prove the hypothesis incorrect. What is not certain is what is driving this number so low and decreasing support so much among the young women of the South. Texas and Florida, both in the South, ranked first and second in numbers of military recruits. In a list of most recent casualties in Iraq by state, seven of the top fifteen states were in the southern region including Texas, Florida, Georgia, Virginia, Louisiana, North Carolina, and Tennessee ( Perhaps the decreased rate of approval for keeping troops in Iraq comes from young southern women knowing more troops or experiencing more casualties in their communities or hometowns related to the war. On the issue of Guantanamo Bay young southern women acted more the way previous research anticipated they would. AGE SOUTH NON-SOUTH UNDER 30 50% 37.9% % 44.5% % 42.4% OVER % 44.8% Young women in the South said the practices at Guantanamo Bay were fair at 12.1% higher than young women in the non-south. The age gap in the South was also smaller on this issue at less than 2% compared with a gap of 6.9% in the non-south. On this question

29 the hypothesis was correct that younger southern women held more conservative opinions than younger women in the non-south. Smith 28 Conclusion: This study combined research in the areas of southern culture, southern politics, and the gender gap to determine if southern women held distinct views on certain key issues compared to their non-southern counterparts in the rest of the country. On the two social issues of abortion and gay marriage, southern women as a whole and evangelical southern women showed little difference in their percent of opposition to these concerns. The only difference came when controlling for party as southern Republican women held more conservative views. This does reinforce previous research of perhaps a more distinct traditional culture in the South. While more evangelicals are present in the South, southern women evangelicals had much the same opinions on these social issues as women evangelicals elsewhere. On the two foreign policy issues of the war in Iraq and Guantanamo Bay, southern women did support the fairness of the detainment facility at a higher rate than women in the non-south. What was surprising was that consistently southern women supported keeping troops in Iraq at lower levels than non-southern women. When it came to the age gap in the South this change was huge at over 30%. This finding goes against the existing literature that attitudes in the South change less than in the rest of the country and more research is needed to determine what is driving this number so low among young southern women.

30 Smith 29 While on some issues women in the South, who are evangelical and/or Republican, do conform to the present research that the South is a distinct cultural region, these findings suggest that just because evangelicals have greater numbers in the South does not mean they act differently than their non-southern evangelical counterparts. This also does not mean that there are more members of the Republican Party in the South. Also the findings for support for Iraq among southern women are opposed to existing literature that would anticipate these women to support the war more. So the image of a distinct southern region that has been upheld for generations may not be as true as once thought. Southern women in many areas do act differently than non-southern women in ways, however, that are not anticipated. On other policy issues these women are the same as women who do no reside in the South. More studies should be done to determine if the South should still be distinguished from the rest of the country or if this distinction has in fact today become a false assumption.

31 Smith 30 Bibliography Bass, Jack and Walter DeVries The Transformation of Southern Politics: Social Change and Political Consequence Since New York: Basic Books, Inc., Publishers. Black, Earl and Merle Black The Rise of Southern Republicans. Cambridge, Massachusetts: The Belknap Press of Harvard University Press. Conover, Pamela Johnston and Virginia Sapiro Gender, Feminist Consciousness, And War. American Journal of Political Science 37 (November): Howell, Susan E. and Christine L. Day. Complexities of the Gender Gap The Journal of Politics 62 (August): Hurlbert, Jeanne S The Southern Region: A Test of the Hypothesis of Cultural Distinctiveness. The Sociological Quarterly 30 (Summer): Iraqi War Casualties (Most Recent) by State. < December 9, Key, Jr., V.O Southern Politics in State and Nation. New York: Alfred A. Knopf. Powers, Rebecca S. et al Regional Differences in Gender Role Attitudes: Variations by Gender and Race. Gender Issues (Summer): Reed, John Shelton The Enduring South: Subcultural Persistence in Mass Society. Lexington, Massachusetts: Lexington Books. Rice, Tom W. and Diane L. Coates Gender Role Attitudes in the Southern United States. Gender and Society 9 (December):

32 Smith 31 Schlesinger, Mark and Caroline Heldman Gender Gap of Gender Gaps? New Perspectives on Support for Government Action and Policies. The Journal of Politics 63 (February): Scott, Anne Firor The Southern Lady: From Pedestal to Politics, Chicago: University of Chicago Press. Sechrist, Jori et al Regional Differences in Mother-Adult-Child Relations: A Brief Report. Journal of Gerontology 62B (No. 6): S388-S391. Shapiro, Robery Y. and Harpreet Mahajan Gender Differences in Policy Preferences: A Summary of Trends From the 1960 s to the 1980 s. The Public Opinion Quarterly 50 (Spring): Silk, Mark Religion and Region in American Public Life. Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion 44 (3): Smith, Tom W The Polls: Gender and Attitudes Toward Violence. The Public Opinion Quarterly 48 (Spring): Weakliem, David L. and Robert Biggert Region and Political Opinion in the Contemporary United States. Social Forces 77 (March):