Exploring Gender and Constitutional Preferences

Overview
Secessionist winds are now sweeping over Scotland. However, since the 1979 constitutional referendum, a notable gender gap has emerged in support of Scottish independence. Moreover, in the 2014 referendum, women were ten percentage points less likely than men to support independence. While scholarly research has acknowledged the diverging influence of gender on constitutional preferences in this society, as of yet, it has provided only limited explanation, and the field remains relatively unexplored. Mindful of this omission and using a socio-political approach, this research project seeks to provide the first comprehensive study of the role of gender in determining constitutional preferences in Scotland. In doing so it seeks to not only broaden our understanding of the gender-based dynamics of constitutional preferences in Scotland but also to investigate both the nature and trajectory of such gender-based differences.
Research questions
1). What has the relationship between gender and constitutional preferences in Scotland looked like historically?
2) Is there, after the 2014 referendum, still a gender gap in support for Scottish independence?
3). How does gender affect constitutional preferences?
4). To what extent does international research on gender and constitutional preferences contribute to explaining the Scottish gender gap?
Methodology
This project will adopt a quantitative approach, with the focus on secondary analysis of already existing data. The main strength of this study is the possibility to extensively use quantitative measures in order to infer on possible causal relationships on social cleavages and how gender crosscuts with those.
Impact
As the topic of constitutional preferences is highly relevant to the current Scottish political debate, as well as an underexplored area of research, this project has the potential to contribute not only to the public discussion around constitutional change, but also the sociological and public policy debate around gender, nationalism and efficacy. Findings will therefore be suitable for publication in social science journals such as Gender & Politics, and European Sociological Review. Lastly, this project will truly contribute methodologically to the field, as it will be the first to explore the topic using advanced quantitative methods, such as large-scale survey data and several statistical strategies in an area that traditionally is dominated by qualitative work.