Gender and Public Demands for Border Security

• In Event: Public Opinion and Civic Behavior in Conflict Settings

Abstract

Concern about border control is a defining feature of contemporary international relations. This article advances and experimentally examines two novel explanations for public opinion about border security efforts. We propose that the gendered terms in which people think about their states can affect their level of support for strong border security actions. Borders are both a masculinized security domain and an area of perceived state vulnerability. Feminized imagery may evoke a sense that the state is vulnerable and prompt increased support for strong border security action, yet feminization may alternatively lead people to adopt feminized imagery and support feminine behavior that differs from strong border security action. We find in a survey experiment in the United States that characterizing the state as feminine, first, causes women to express less support for strong border security action and, second, causes men to perceive the state as more vulnerable. These preliminary findings indicate the need for scholarship on border politics to account for gendered dynamics in order to better explain public demands for border security.

Authors

• Jeffrey Coltman-Cormier, Rutgers University, New Brunswick

• Michael Kenwick, Rutgers University

• Summer Lindsey, Rutgers University, New Brunswick