This proposal is to assemble a new archive of data on gender attitudes of American men and women from opinion polls taken between 1936 and 1989. The research will focus on the sources and causes of long-term trends in attitudes. The approach to be taken is that of a "life history" analysis of attitude formation. The purpose of the analyses is (1) to identify the major historical events shaping the life-history of attitude items, (2) to determine whether the "liberalizing trend" of past decades has stalled in recent years, (3) to measure the relative strength of period and cohort-replacement processes in generating long-term trends, (4) to monitor the changing pattern of intergroup cleavages in attitudes, and (5) to assess whether changes in individual level variables can account for the year-by-year trends. The analyses should provide important baseline measurements of the sources and structure of gender attitudes in America.
