A Gender Divide in Economic Nationalism? Evidence from Current US Public Opinion

• In Event: New Frontiers in Gender and Political Economy

Abstract

Are women more likely than men to support economically nationalist policies? Economic nationalism is experiencing a revival in recent years, in sharp contrast to the steady trend of trade liberalization and financial integration that dominated the immediate post-Cold War decades. Its current incarnation ranges from the ‘friend-shoring’ of manufacturing and shortening of supply chains, to (green) industrial policies, to the explicit use of trade and investment as tools of global security competition. The turn toward economic nationalism appears driven in no small part by popular demand in the world’s largest economies.

Research on foreign policy public opinion has identified gender gaps on a wide range of issues, from international engagement in general to international trade and the use of military force. To the extent that it sits at the intersection of economic and security policy, it is worth asking how and why women and men also diverge in their views on economic nationalism. Prior work leads me to hypothesize that women should be more likely than men to support ‘defensive’ forms of economic nationalism (which are trade protectionist and isolationist) but less likely to support ‘offensive’ forms (aimed at weakening or antagonizing rival states).

This study will present evidence from original surveys and experiments conducted in the US in 2022 and 2023, respectively. Batteries of questions were included on the 2022 Congressional Election Study (CES) to generate a novel measure of respondents’ economic nationalism, as well as information on political knowledge, economic interests, and national identification. Findings from the CES will be supplemented with original experiments conducted in March and June of 2023 as part of the Carnegie-funded project Foreign Policy in a Diverse Society (FPDS). The findings will provide initial insights into the extent and shape of US economic nationalism and the correlates of women’s and men’s attitudes toward nationalist policies.

Author

• Katja B. Kleinberg, SUNY, Binghamton University