The gender gap and nuclear power: Attitudes in a politicized environment

Historically, women have been less likely than men to support nuclear energy. Following this literature, we hypothesize that this gender gap results from concerns over safety factors and/or lower awareness of the issues. We study the differences in perceptions between men and women toward the operation of a local nuclear plant during a wave of public protest. Our analysis suggests that gender differences in safety concerns explains the gender gap in attitudes toward opening the local nuclear plant and provides a partial explanation of the gender gap in the perception of general nuclear power technology. Awareness levels have no significant effect on the gender gap. We suggest that the gender gap can be traced to women's propensity to rationally process negative information about nuclear power.An earlier version of this paper was presented at the 1987 meeting of the Southern Sociological Society, Atlanta, GA. We appreciate the comments of Charles Brody and an anonymous reviewer for this revised version.