Huge Economist Gender Gap on Policy Issues

From the newsroom at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln:

"Is there a "gender gap" in the views of professional economists? A new national study (forthcoming in Contemporary Economic Policy) finds that while most economists agree on core economic concepts, values and methods, they differ along gender lines in their views on policy."

"The analysis, believed to be the first systematic analysis of male and female economists' views on a wide variety of policy issues, surveyed hundreds of members of the American Economic Association. The research team found that despite having similar training and adherence to core economic principles and methodology, male and female economists hold different opinions on particular current economic issues and specific economic policies including educational vouchers, health insurance and policies toward labor standards."

Among the findings:
 
1. By 20 percentage points, women economists are more likely to disagree that either the United States or the European Union has excessive government regulations. 

2. Female economists are 24 percentage points more likely to believe the size of the U.S. government is either "too small" or "much too small."

3. Women are 41 percentage points more likely than men to favor a more progressive tax structure. 

4. Female economists are 32 percentage points more likely to agree with making the U.S. income distribution more equal.

5. Men support the use of vouchers in education more strongly than women. 

6. Male economists were more likely to support drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge.

7. Male economists, on average, said that opportunities are relatively equal between the genders in the United States, while the average female economist in the study disagrees. 

8. When asked about the gender wage gap, the average male economist agrees that differences in productivity and voluntary occupational choices lead to men earning more, while female economists tend to disagree.

9. Compared to female economists, men exhibit greater support for reducing tariffs. 

10. Men are more opposed than women to mandating that employers provide their employees health insurance.

MP: Wow, I would not have suspected that the professional economist gender gap is that HUGE on so many issues.  

Update: Don't these results support the theory that there are innate gender differences between men and women, in terms of the way they think, learn, and view the world? "Despite having similar training and adherence to core economic principles and methodology," female and male economists come to completely different policy conclusions on many issues.  Given the statistically significant gender differences in the way male and female economists think about the world, why would we ever expect perfect statistical gender parity in anything: career choices, academic choices, average hours worked, engineering degrees, economic degrees, computer science degrees, communication degrees, education degrees, STEM degrees and careers, scores on the math SAT, scores on the critical reading SAT, etc.?  

Exhibit A: If men and women both study microeconomics and international trade theory and men exhibit greater support for free trade and reducing tariffs, can that be explained by anything other than significant gender differences in thinking, logic and reasoning?