I’ve noticed a controversy recently about the gender gap. For example, in the aftermath of the Virginia gubernatorial election last month, it was noted that Terry McAuliffe won on the strength of his support among women, but white women actually preferred Bob Cuccinelli. This led some women of color to complain that they weren’t getting the credit they deserved, or that white women were getting credit that they didn’t deserve. It’s an important point, but it doesn’t really reflect a proper understanding of the gender gap. It used to be that white women and white men voted very similarly, but in recent years white women have shown more inclination than white men to vote Democratic. That doesn’t mean that they prefer the Democrats overall, only that they demonstrate more support than white men. That’s the gap.
Another way of looking at it is that you can control for everything else, like race, religiosity, region, and income, and you’ll discover that women lean further to the left than men. Some of those subgroups will still show an overall rightward lean, but not as large a one as seen with their male counterparts in the correlating subgroups.
Even if you want to focus on the fact that white women still lean a little to the right, you have to take note of certain facts. For example, 59 of the 78 female members of the House are Democrats, and 20 of the 24 freshmen women are Democrats. Seventeen of the twenty female senators are Democrats, and all of them are white. The leader of the Democrats in the House is Nancy Pelosi, and several Democratic women have assumed leadership positions in the Senate.
Having said all that, I think political commentators often treat women of color as if they are black or brown first and only women second. Women prefer the Democrats by a healthy margin, and if they didn’t vote Mitt Romney probably would have won about 47 states. Other than the president, the two most popular politicians among Democrats are Hillary Clinton and Elizabeth Warren.
People talk a lot about how demographic changes (primarily, the browning of America) are moving the country to the left and making it harder and harder for the GOP to cobble together an Electoral College majority, but the gender gap is equally important in explaining this trend. Simply put, while it’s true that the Republicans cannot afford to lose 78% of the Latino vote, they also cannot afford to lose as many white women as they’ve been losing. And they’re losing those votes for the same reason that they’re losing Latino votes. Their policies are hostile to women’s interests. Unless the Republicans make a split with the social conservatives on women’s rights and elements of public assistance, they will not be sending anyone to the Oval Office anytime soon.
Some of this is generational. Women over about 45 are, despite prominent exceptions such as some of those in congress, more likely to be in a traditional marriage and to be…how do I say this…deferential to their husband’s views. That’s certainly what I see here in Minnesota.
Now don’t get aflutter if you are in that group and aren’t like hearing that. There are many, many liberal women in that age range. And more liberal women than men. But on balance, younger women marry much later, live with men less of their overall lives, and have more time to develop and solidify political views before they get into a relationship.
From a purely self-interested point of view, a woman past her child-bearing period of life is not directly affected by lack of access to contraception or restricted abortion rights. Married women of child-bearing age are still interested in those policies, but less so than single women. So, it isn’t that surprising that white women in their 50’s and older vote much more conservatively than younger women, or that married women vote more conservatively than single women. When you add the increased tax-aversion people experience in their 40’s and 50’s, as they reach their peak earning years/nadir for needing government services, it’s not hard to explain why older, white married women trend Republican while the rest trend Democratic.
For the GOP, though, it’s not good enough to attract only tax-averse married white women. And, even there, they are underperforming.
Except us women over 50 have daughters and granddaughters we want to have access to birth control.
Sure, but that’s an indirect effect, and it isn’t distinct from men in the same age group. That’s why it is has less political impact than you might think. Older women are more empathetic toward younger women than are older men, but it’s a matter of degree.
I don’t know what that means. All I know is that is equally if not more important to me that my granddaughters have access to birth control. Teenage pregnancy sucks.
Age, income/wealth, and religion are likely stronger influences than marital partner. It wasn’t so long ago that Democrats owned the senior and working class male vote. And until 1948, Republicans could count on the black vote. (Failing to poll African Americans was why Gallup got that one wrong.) There was a gender gap in 1960; Nixon won among women. There were more and stronger unions back then that factored into the white male vote.
The GOP has had an inherent advantage once they figured out how to cut into the senior and male working class vote. Taft-Hartley was the first piece in that puzzle. Stoking the illusion that it wasn’t government or unions but their own individual hard work that gave them a decent retirement and good wages and benefits. We can point our fingers at Wall St., the Kochs, Waltons, etc. to explain how the 1% have taken over our political institutions, but it was stupid white folks (mostly men) that gave them the power. And they been whining for decades without ever connecting the dots that their voting habits are responsible for their declining wages and wealth.
Only white married women vote for Republicans. Single white women have been voting Democratic for some time now. I don’t see that trend reversing any time soon
Married white women are wealthier than single white women. As was noted a long time ago, the difference between Pat Nixon and a welfare mother was one man.
Count me among those who are tired of them talking about a Woman Gap, when it is a Non-White woman gap.
I wouldn’t hold my breath for the GOP to change their attitudes towards women. In WA they elected a woman this year to be the chair of the State party and promptly gave her a pay cut so she now earns 75% of what the male before her earned. She was not happy. She said it feeds into the meme that the GOP is engaged in a war on women. No one listened.
Life imitates The Onion again.
It’s like the trogs got tired of waiting for their promised majority and they’re gonna let their freak flags fly, no matter what.
what did they give as excuse for pay cut? certainly demonstrates lack of awareness
White privilege doesn’t need excuses. They just did and took the hit in the media–they really care that little what anyone thinks about what they do.
Shhhhhh! Don’t give the game away. Let them screw it up. It’s not our job to tell them what they are doing wrong. It’s our job to LET them and then whup their asses at the polls.
Dammit! I meant at the ballot box, not the polls. [brain fart]