What is it about?
Expert advisers are increasingly important in public policy decisions, but are women and men equally likely to support the use of experts in the public sphere? This paper examines gender differences in public attitudes about the roles expert advisers and elected leaders should play in public policy decisions related to science.
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Why is it important?
Compared to men, women tend to assign less policy influence to elected officials and more policy influence to expert advisers. This suggests that there are fundamental differences in men's and women's preferences for leadership in the public sphere.
Perspectives
This paper adds to mounting evidence that public attitudes about science in general differ from attitudes about specific aspects of science and technology. This paper also highlights the importance of gender in understanding the political legitimacy of scientists in the United States.
Dr Timothy L O'Brien
University of Wisconsin Milwaukee
Read the Original
This page is a summary of: Gender and support for expert advisers and elected officials in the US public sphere, Public Understanding of Science, April 2016, SAGE Publications,
DOI: 10.1177/0963662516643671.
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