Men, Masculinity, & Mindsets: Understanding Gender & Contemporary Attitudes

Much has been made in recent years of a perceived crisis of masculinity, of white men being or feeling “left behind”, of masculinity and populism, and how all this may affect policy and elections. We simply do not know as much about the role of masculinity in "the gender gap" in political attitudes, and this workshop aims to begin exploring this issue in more detail. The scholarship on gender gaps in public opinion and political behaviour has tended to frame women as drivers of attitudinal gaps and changes in their size and importance over time. Most research focuses on sex rather than gender, and presents women’s behaviour as the phenomenon to be explained, in contrast to men’s behaviour (the implicit default against which others are understood). In this workshop we place men and masculinity under the microscope, to better understand the drivers of gendered attitudes and behaviors. This one-day workshop will bring together a small group of scholars from around the  world to discuss the role of masculinity in political attitudes.