A new report on global attitudes about the U.S. from the Pew Research Center shows something that isn’t terribly surprising: American drone strikes are unpopular around the world (only Israel approves U.S. drone strikes more than the U.S.). What is surprising, however, is the unusually large gender gap in attitudes about one of the Obama administration’s signature national security tools.
When asked, “Do you approve or disapprove of the United States conducting missile strikes from pilotless aircraft called drones to target extremists in countries such as Pakistan, Yemen and Somalia?” women were much less likely to say they approved.
At the most extreme end of that gap is Japan where 41 percent of men approve of while only 10 percent of women do. Double digit gender gaps are found in six of the eight EU countries polled and the U.S. had a 17 point gap.
But aren’t women generally more resistant to violence, war and military action?
“Gender gaps are also often seen in global surveys over the use of military force, with women far less likely than men to say that force is sometimes necessary in the pursuit of justice,” wrote Bruce Stokes, Director of Global Economic Attitudes at the Pew Research Center’s Global Attitudes Project, in a blog post about the project. “But the gender difference over drone strikes is unusually large.”
Pew didn’t offer an explanation for the difference between the gender gap on drones versus the gender gap in the use of military force more generally, because there wasn’t a qualitative portion to the survey. However, a review done last year of recent public polling about gender gaps and support for war seems to support Stokes’ claim that there is something different about drones.
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