Sarah Rutherford ’12, Advisors: Dr. Michael Tesler, Dr. Gavril Bilev

1. How We Evaluate Political Philosophies:The Relationship between Philosophers’ Gender Valuesand Brown University Students’ Opinions of Their Philosophies Sarah Rutherford ’12, Advisors: Dr. Michael Tesler, Dr. Gavril Bilev Discussion Results Introduction & Research Question Political Science students rarely discuss the gender discrimination inherent in many classic political theories. What happens when we are made aware of political philosophers’ sexist attitudes? How does our evaluation of the admirability and applicability of their philosophies change? I constructed and fielded a survey experiment to answer this question. Students who were exposed to Rousseau’s gender norms rated his political theories 14 percentage points lower on a scale of admirability and applicability than those who were unexposed. Students who thought Rousseau’s philosophies were gender inclusive found his theories 18 percentage points more attractive than those who thought women were excluded from his political vision. On average, students evaluated Rousseau’s gender values with a .38 score, falling in-between disagreement and indifference. These results were mediated by certain identity factors, such as students’ gender, gender values, and political ideologies. General Rousseau Opinion by Survey Group The Survey The Control Group evaluated three quotes from Rousseau that do not directly mention women. The Treatment Group received two additional quotes: “In the family, it is clear, for several reasons which lie in its very nature, that the father ought to command” (Rousseau, A Discourse on the Political Economy) “Once it is demonstrated that man and woman are not, and should not be constituted the same, either in character or in temperament, it follows that they should not have the same education” (Rousseau, Emile) A highly significant difference between groups (p<.001). Conclusions Students’ Evaluation of Rousseau’s Gender Values My findings demonstrate the causal role that text selection plays in determining students’ opinions towards political philosophy. These results reveal the need for careful, responsible material selection by professors and discussion section leaders in social science classes. Methods Acknowledgements • The survey was administered to 727 Brown University students between 2/7 and 2/14. • Nearly half of the surveys (43.9%) were administered in Political Science Classes. Thank you to Dr. Michael Tesler and Dr. Gavril Bilev for advising my thesis. Thank you also to the students and professors who participated in this survey experiment. The mean response is .38