So last week was CRAZY. On Friday I had a paper due in my POLS Campaigns and Elections class and despite being genuinely interested in my chosen topic, the Gender Partisan Gap, it was a very stressful paper to write. In addition to my post this week I’d just like to share it with everyone. Oh, and by the way…..I think I probably had the best title in the class….
Also, the numbers are my citations. I see now the version I have saved on my laptop doesn’t have the bibliography attached. I have them if anyone is really interested, they’re all scholarly papers I found on Google Scholars/JSTOR/etc.
A Woman’s Cleavage
Understanding the Partisan Gender Gap
The change in partisan identification of men and women has become a popular field of study. Currently the two genders are further apart than they have been since 1977 (1). These macropolitical analyses all agree that the differences are existent outside of elections (1) and do accurately apply to women as voters as a whole. Very importantly, these studies are not meant to draw conclusions about the two genders, but rather examine what the differences are and why (1). While some may agree with an attitude-based hypothesis, the concept that there are fundamental differences in the preferences of men and women (6), the best way to analyze these shifts in aggregate partisanship is to look at the trends in defection the last thirty years, see that common political sentiments among women clearly point to their participation in the Democratic party, and take note of the historical events that had influence on the political leanings of the two genders.
Beginning in the nineteen sixties, researchers found a trend of defection from the Democratic party (7). More people were moving toward increasingly conservative standpoints and both men and women were re-identifying themselves as Republicans, this increase in conservatism increased the size of the gap (1). Conservative preferences are twice as popular as liberal preferences (1). This proved the surprising fact that autonomy, which was on the rise for women during this time due to the Women’s Rights Movement, did not necessarily mean distinct political preferences (1). However, it is also recognized that the defection of women has come at a much slower rate than men, and this is also a popular belief as to why there are so many women who are Democrats (5). Then President Reagan is elected. Some feminist theorists believe Reagan’s anti-abortion and Equal Rights Amendment opinions turned women away from the Republican party, furthering the gap (5), however, other researchers claim there was a slight bump in numbers of Republican women due to them following men into the party (6). Despite this, the partisan gender gap continued to grow over time and, by 1992, it was solidified as a substantial part of the political leanings of the American people. Although the gender gap exists in both the Northern states and the Southern states, it is noted that the numbers for the partisan gender gap, if examined by North and South separately, are different. This is due to greater partisan preferences, typically toward the Republican party (5). In total, between 1977 and 2000, over 50 percent of women polled by CBS News and the New York Times claimed Democratic partisanship and the gender gap ranged from zero to 10 percent (1).
Now, personally, previous to doing research for this paper, if someone told me that there are more women in the Democratic party because it holds more “feminine” principles, I would have disregarded it as misogynistic generalizations. Although surprisingly, this mentality is actually rooted in feminist theory. Many vocal and politically minded women have often said that the “women-centered perspective” that focuses on the female experience is a unique source of values for society (3). The exact impact of this perspective is elusive, but many feminists still believe it is valid. Studies have been done to prove, interestingly enough, that if there is a distinctive woman’s perspective, it is not apparent in the political values of women as a whole (3). However, I must say I was told this now, I would feel differently. Each of these scholarly papers note at least once through either empirical evidence or other well regarded statistics that women are more drawn to the Democratic party partly because of it’s more compassionate tenants and it’s equality-driven advocacy, which, as shown in very eloquent and sometimes longwinded evidence, are also shared by most women. They pose a nearly unarguable position that even I personally, reluctantly, can agree with. For example, women oppose capital punishment and support stricter gun control laws, and they are less likely to support involvement in foreign wars (1). Yep, that’s me. It’s not always easy to admit you’re apart of a statistic, but I see myself and many of my female peers in almost all of these representations. Also, women are supportive of government involvement in the economy to ensure good jobs, assertions of a certain standard of living, and an increase in government services in general (1). These are all stances often associated with the Democratic party. Another, and even more logical in my opinion, reason for females finding themselves better represented by the Democratic party is there are more women than there are men who are dependent on welfare (1). There has been rapid increases in women who receive state benefits and women who are the head of their households (1), and of course there is the long standing disproportionate number of women who must carry the brunt of responsibilities for the young and the elderly (1). After reading all of these increases in the amount of work that many women must single-handedly take care of, I can’t help but wonder if there is any correlation between this and the staggering number of males in the US penitentiary system, which, as we all know, has the highest number of inmates in the world. Regardless of this curious connection, women suffer a economic vulnerability that very clearly is a propelling reason for so many women to support the Democratic party.
Another question that comes into play in the studies of the partisan gender gap is that of the involvement of independent voters. How do their numbers effect the gap? First of all, there are two different types of independent voters: pure and Democratic or Republican leaning. Traditional treatment of the gender gap, which ignores the leaning independents, mainly focuses on the large concentration of women in the Democratic party. However, if you include the leaning independents, one sees that there is an almost equal concentration of men in the Republican party, proving that there is an affinity for each party by each respective gender (2). It is easy to discount these leaning voters and come to the conclusion that more women align themselves with the Democratic party because women are on average 6 percentage points less likely than men to view themselves as political independents (2). This could be due to the fact that women are likely to view parties more favorably than men (2). They more comfortably assign blame and credit (1) and therefore find it easier to commit to one party or the other.
Being a feminist myself, this topic really jumped out at me right from the start. It’s incredibly important to know what disparities exist between groups, especially gendered groups, and to study them, find out why they exist and if they are a detriment to you, or in this case, the nation. The gender gap doesn’t seem to make an incredibly hurtful impact on our politics, but there’s no reason we should feel that we should follow a certain party because of gender patterns. Political discussion is very often segregated, that is men talk with men and women talk with women about politics (4) and this, I believe, is a perpetrator of this gender gap and it is a problem. What it means to be a Democrat or a Republican doesn’t mean the same things it meant when this research began and it puzzling that the two seem to be diverging as they are (1). This gap is not a residual phenomenon, it is subject to constant stimulation (1) and because of this, I feel it can be remedied. While the partisan gender gap may be on the back burner of most people’s, and probably many politician’s, minds, it’s something we should all be aware of so as a nation we do not fall into a gendered political scene, sorted by what’s in our pants and how we think we supposed to develop, politically and ideologically.