Regime Transition and Attitude toward Regime The Latin American Gender Gap in Support for Democracy Lee Demetrius Walker and Genevieve Kehoe Gendered literature about the third wave of democracy suggests that women should be at least as supportive of democracy as their male counterparts since women have made tan- gible gains in new democratic states. For instance, the political representation of women by women (descriptive representation) in new democratic legislatures of the third wave is dramatically higher than representation of women by women during the prior authoritar- ian period. 1 Paradoxically, survey data from Latin America and Africa show that women are 5 percent and 7 percent, respectively, less likely than men to prefer democracy. 2 More- over, Latin American data suggest that women, as a group, are more likely than men to reject democracy when democracy underperforms. Scholars posit that these gendered differences occur because 1) women are more risk-averse and significantly less likely than men to prefer the uncertainty of democracy; and 2) women are more likely than men to base their preference for democracy on the performance of the democratic regime. 3 Assuming that these gendered differences come not from inherent characteristics of men and women but rather from something that each group uniquely experiences, what have these groups encountered or undergone to formulate such unique responses? Literature on women and democratization in Latin America suggests that the historical moment of the democratic transition is the likely antecedent from which these gendered differences arise. 4 Moreover, Georgina Waylen argues that “a gendered analysis of dem- ocratic consolidation in Latin America must begin by examining the terms of transition.” 5 In short, the mode of the democratic transition conditions the effect that gender has on support for democracy. Thus, we argue that the gender gap in support for democracy is partly a function of the level of attachment that women, as a group, have for the demo- cratic regime, and that this level of attachment is, at least in part, determined by the mode of democratic transition. We evaluate the gender gap in democratic support by examining attitudes toward regime type in seventeen Latin American countries over four time periods (1997, 2000, 2003, and 2006). Building on the work of Michelle Saint-Germain concerning gender 187