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Posted
Tuesday, March 17, 2009 9:52 AM
| By
Kerry Howley
According to new research in International Studies Quarterly, "members of households with girls tend to be less isolationist, more open to using military means to prosecute foreign policy, and more likely to feel that ongoing conflicts have been beneficial on net than are those who live with boys." Robert Urbatsch, a professor of political science at Iowa State, analyzed data on household composition and political opinions included in the 2004 National Election Study. Controlling for income, religiosity, and education, he found that people in households with girls (a proxy for "parents with daughters") had foreign policy views similar to those of people in households without children. In contrast, people in households with boys reported being significantly less hawkish and more isolationist than both groups—possibly because it is young men who are most likely to enlist. Parents of boys may find the prospect of war more personally threatening.
This seems like a good time to quote Plutarch's "Sayings of Spartan Women":
One woman sent forth her sons, five in number, to war, and, standing in the outskirts of the city, she awaited anxiously the outcome of the battle. And when someone arrived and, in answer to her inquiry, reported that all her sons had met death, she said, "I did not inquire about that, you vile varlet, but how fares our country?" And when he declared that it was victorious, "Then," she said, "I accept gladly also the death of my sons."
Would Spartans with daughters be more intense?
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