Gender differences in socio-political attitudes in a Polish sample

SynopsisThis is a study of gender differences in socio-political attitudes concerning: 1) moral issues (the conservative–liberal dimension) and 2) economic issues (support for governmental interventionism versus market economy). The study was run on 538 men and women, students of various courses at Warsaw universities aged from 18 to 24 (Study 1) and 179 complete married couples aged from 36 to 64 (Study 2). It was found that women, whatever their age, are more liberal than men and show more preference for governmental interventionism in the economy. Compared with younger women, middle-aged women are more morally conservative but not significantly different with respect to their economic preferences. There were no significant differences between younger and older men with respect to moral attitudes or economic attitudes.