Two questions serve as the organization of the dissertation: First, what has caused changes in the social definition of gender? Second, how has the social definition of gender affected the gender gap in partisanship? I test the effect of the social definition of gender and competing theories on the formation of the gender gap.
The concept of the social definition of gender is operationalized using public opinion. I use James Stimson's dynamic algorithm, a form of principle component factor analysis, to combine multiple question series into a single time series of the progressiveness of American's gender attitudes. Survey questions pertaining to the roles and expectations of men and women are collected from iPoll and the National Election Studies. The partisanship data has been gathered from Gallup surveys.
Changes in the social definition of gender continually remold the social and political landscape of the United States. However, the connection between changes in social identities and the behavior resulting from those changes is often overlooked. This project makes that connection through understanding the impact the dynamics of social definition of gender has on men's and women's political alignments. Additionally, this project enhances our understanding of what causes changes in macropartisanship and provides an explanation for the dynamics of the partisan gender gap.