Canadian Slavonic Papers / Revue canadienne des slavistes Vol. LIV, Nos. 1–2, March-June 2012 / mars-juin 2012 Mirya R. Holman and Renat Shaykhutdinov The Chechen War and an Emerging Gender Gap in Russia ABSTRACT: Scholarship on the impact of gender on political attitudes has shown that women have more liberal attitudes than men do, both generally and in relation to specific policy areas. One area of an especially large gender gap is in attitudes about foreign policy and the use of force, where women are much less likely to support war and armed conflict. An exception to this gender gap is found in post-communist countries, where men and women often do not display significantly different political attitudes. Employing a variety of survey data on public opinion about the Chechen conflict in Russia, we investigate whether a modern gender gap has emerged in Russia, and the form that this gender gap has taken. We find strong, diverse evidence of a gender gap in Russia, with women expressing more dovish attitudes towards the conflict in Chechnya. INTRODUCTION Extensive research on the effect of gender on political attitudes has demonstrated that women articulate more liberal attitudes than men do, both generally and in relation to specific policy areas. 1 Women typically express more support for social services and less support for economic and military issues than men do, as well as demonstrating significant and long-standing preferences for women’s issues. 2 Despite the prevalence of the gender gap in Both authors contributed equally to this work. The authors are grateful to Andrew Konitzer, Heather Coleman, and several anonymous reviewers for their assistance in this project. 1 Kristi Andersen, “The Gender Gap and Experiences with the Welfare State,” PS: Political Science & Politics 32.1 (1999): 17; Robert Shapiro and Harpreet Mahajan, “Gender Differences in Policy Preferences: A Summary of Trends from the 1960s to the 1980s,” Public Opinion Quarterly 50.1 (1986): 42; Ronald Inglehart and Pippa Norris, Rising Tide: Gender Equality and Cultural Change Around the World (New York: Cambridge University Press, 2003); Jane Mansbridge, “Myth and Reality: The Era and the Gender Gap in the 1980 Election,” Public Opinion Quarterly 49.2 (1985): 164; Elizabeth Adell Cook and Clyde Wilcox, “Feminism and the Gender Gap—a Second Look,” Journal of Politics 53.4 (1991): 1111; Benjamin Page and Robert Shapiro, The Rational Public (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1992) 191. 2 Patty Renfrew, “The Gender Gap in the 1993 Election,” Australia Journal of Political Science 29.special issue (1994): 53; Martin Gilens, “Gender and Support for Reagan: A Comprehensive Model of Presidential Approval,” American Journal of Political Science 32.2 (1988): 19; Patricia Johnston Conover, “Feminists and the Gender Gap,” Journal of Politics 50.4 (1988): 985; Susan J. Carroll, “Women’s Autonomy and the Gender Gap: 1980 and 1982,” in The Politics of the Gender Gap, edited by Carol Mueller (Thousand