Why Do Women Disapprove of Drone Strikes So Much More Than Men Do?

[The Straight Story]

Why Do Women Disapprove of Drone Strikes So Much More Than Men Do?

Pew's out with an international poll that shows, across countries and overall levels of support, a striking gender gap exists on support for American drone strikes.

Women were much less likely to approve of "the United States conducting missile strikes from pilotless aircraft called drones to target extremists in countries such as Pakistan, Yemen and Somalia."

In Japan, for example, support for drone strikes was 30 percentage points lower than their male counterparts. The smallest gaps -- in France, South Korea, and Uganda -- were 14, 14, and 13 percentage points, respectively. On average, there was a 22-point gap between male and female support for drone strikes, and it didn't matter if there was considerable overall support for strikes or not.

"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 introducing the data. "But the gender difference over drone strikes is unusually large."

http://m.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2013/07/why-do-women-disapprove-of-drone-strikes-so-much-more-than-men-do/278112/

[hlthe2b]

1. I'd be hard pressed to offer any hypothesis that didn't seem insulting to some men.

So, perhaps a few male DUers might offer their own hypothesis and explanation. All I know is it is depressing to see so many defend the collateral damage from drone strikes, regardless of gender.

[Lancero]

22. My idea?

The unintended victims. All the children that have been killed as a result of the drone strikes.

While both genders care for children, how much they care varies a lot.

Males generally only care for their own children. They could give less then a shit about someone else's kid.

Women are more maternal though - Despite a child not being their own, they are far more likely to feel a emotional connection to the child. Overall, women are more caring then men.

It's this emotional connection, the sadness for all the killed children, that leads them to dislike the drone strikes. They realize that these strikes are not as precise as world governments are trying to get people to believe.

[Warpy]

28. Maybe we prefer our violence to be up close and personal

but I'd suspect you're right about the women and children as collateral damage. It's unacceptable in the same way carpet bombing an entire city is.

Still, drone warfare is very likely to produce fewer dead and maimed innocents than any "surgical strike" from the air is, and it definitely produces less death and destruction than a boots on the ground war.

So we're left with the impersonality/inhumanity of the means.

[TreasonousBastard]

2. A few possibilities...

men may be more fascinated by technology

Men are generally in combat roles, and are interested in something that increases their personal safety while also increases the kill ratio

Women are more sympathetic to death and destruction by any means, and the random innocent deaths affect them more emotionally

[hamsterjill]

4. I like this answer.

I think it is well thought out and rational.

I was just going to say that women are (obviously) smarter... (laughing as I type this, of course, for the flames that are sure to come!)

[sinkingfeeling]

3. Maybe because so many are mothers and women, traditionally, aren't

as geared to violence?

[AllINeedIsCoffee]

5. Because they are more thoughtful than we are and I admire that about them...

even if I do support the drone program.

[LWolf]

6. If I approved of war,

if I approved of any kind of bombing, I'd put drone strikes before conventional bombing.

Why? Because none of mine would be in the line of fire. That's brutally honest.

I'm female. That may be irrelevant. I protect my own, though, before anything or anyone.

I don't, though, approve of any kind of bombing, of war, of targeted "strikes," of using violence to achieve any kind of end outside of a direct, immediate, PRESENT threat. So I disapprove of drone strikes. I disapprove of war, period. I disapprove of weapons that kill, or individual or group violence with or without a weapon.

I'd like to be pacifistic enough to disapprove of violence EVER, but in all honesty, I'll knock anyone flat and sit on them to prevent or to stop a direct, immediate, present physical attack.

Outside of that, I don't approve of the use of ANY weapon on other people.

[2naSalit]

7. Interesting question

To which I might offer some thoughts that came up in Anthropology class discussions...

Women have a lot invested in their role as the ones who carry the weight of giving birth while men have little invested (also a possible reason for the dead-beat dad syndrome). This is not an attempt to denigrate the involvement of men in this process but women carry that child internally for nearly a year during gestation, for men - biologically- it's a few minutes and a physical release and it's a done deal. And afterward in most cultures the female component of this mating, if you will, also carry the burden of responsibility of the health and well being of the offspring and contribution to their assimilation into the culture.

Because of this cost of being the ones who give birth and, in most cultures, also carry the burden of raising the children they give birth to (and often those whom they did not bear but care for all the same) which requires compassion and concern for health and well-being... a sense of the costs of death, dismemberment and the caring for the wounded and the grieving.

Women have an innate sense of the value of life (yes there are women who do not but they are few in comparison to those who do and compared to the male population).

How many women can you count throughout history who have been responsible for declarations of war and execution of the war(s)? And compare that to men.

[burnodo]

8. They're more averse to indiscriminate murder?

Maybe?

[bunnies]

9. Why are there more male serial killers?

Beats me.

[Spirochete]

10. Maybe they're less enamored with

the killing of strangers in strange lands. If they're going to kill someone, it'll be someone they know and have reason to hate - or at least think they do.

[La Lioness Priyanka]

11. empathy. nt

[geek tragedy]

12. Because it's a form of violence nt

[treestar]

13. leftover traditional gender roles

as seen in some of the responses.

more women should be OK with it or fewer men.

[bemildred]

14. What's wrong with women? Doesn't everybody like violence?

[whatchamacallit]

16. Awesome+1

[bemildred]

17. This contrived bullshit pisses me off.

I mean fuck!

"Why Do Women Disapprove of Cholera So Much More Than Men Do?"

Orwell knew what he was talking about. Someone may be along soon here to explain to us all that drones really save lives.

[whatchamacallit]

19. Yep

Truly worthy.

[Tierra_y_Libertad]

15. Because most of them don't feel the need to prove they're "tough" by applauding murder.

[forestpath]

23. +1

[MineralMan]

18. Women bring life into the world, carrying it for 9 months,

and then laboring mightily to give birth to it. After that, they nurture that life and help it grow.

Men play a role, but it is a small one in the process until the new life is older.

That is why. Women cherish life because they make it happen and feed it until it can do that for itself. They support life.

Men...well...they have other stuff to do...

[Xyzse]

20. Actually, I am curious of other breakdowns

Such as...

Age
Citizenship
Affluence

[msongs]

21. because the drone murderers are all men? nt

[BainsBane]

24. I would bet women oppose war more than men do as well

So it makes sense they oppose drone strikes.

[G_j]

25. They are smarter nt

[Niceguy1]

26. women by nature

Are disagreeable creatures and since it was a man's idea.

[Ed Suspicious]

27. Men are idiots. I say this as a man.

[WinkyDink]

29. Because we don't have a need to look like manly masculine men.

[pipi_k]

30. Growing up female...

meant that I played with dolls and other "girl stuff".

I wasn't out there playing cops and robbers or cowboys and indians or shooting people up with sticks meant to simulate the weapons of war.

IOW, my role as a girl was to nurture...not kill.

So I guess in that respect, gender roles and expectations weren't really all that bad...