The Gender Gap in the United States Presidential Elections
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The Gender Gap in the United States Presidential Elections
In voting, gender gap refers to the difference in the percentage of mean and the percentage of women who take part in voting for a particular candidate. Emerging gender gap in the United States is not only caused by differences between men and women in voting, but also by their policies and attitudes. Over the years, men and women have been depicted to hold different views on a number of foreign and democratic policies matters and it is because of the same differences that they derive their ideologies to influence their preference for an elected individual. Moreover, statistics show that very few women show interest in elective positions compared to men though the number of women who vie has taken an exponential rise since women were given the rights to vote upon adoption and subsequent implementation of the 9th amendment of the constitution back in 1920.
After women were granted the right to vote, several politicians feared that women voters would only offer their support for candidates who showed their support in policies that were not paternalistic in nature such as hours and protective wages laws, expensive housing and housing policies, and other types of social necessities for indigent families and women. According to data from National Election Studies for presidential and other elections held in the United States between 1952 and 1992, and data from Voters News Service for the US elections held in 1996, gender gap is not a new concept in the United States political scene.
Gender gap dates to the 1980 elections when the Republican Party’s presidential flag bearer Reagan ran a campaign throughout the US declaring his strong opposition to abortion and Equal Rights Amendment while showing his unwavering support for a Soviet-Style communism aggressive policy for military commitment and traditional family values. These policies, which have characterized the Republican Party since Reagan, have significantly led to the alienation of women who have since then sorted never to return to the party. As a result, many women in the US are members of the Democratic Party and this is clearly depicted by the immense support they give the Democratic Party candidates in recent presidential elections.
Other forms of gender gap in the United States include policy attitudes, turnout rates, evaluation of holders of political offices, and rates of office holding. Recent US presidential elections have revealed a significantly widening gap in women’s and men’s voting preferences. The elections have been marked by the Republican Party’s highly conservative stance regarding reproductive issues together with the ignorant and offensive use of foul language such as legitimate, forcible and “gift of God” rape, many Americans attributed this to the obviously polarized political parties in regard to social issues. High on the agenda too were the reproductive rights, both in the in the improved Republican legislative activity aimed at restricting funding and access to abortion, and the rhetorical realm. The elections have witnessed proliferation of women issues that have greatly taken center stage during the campaigns and consequently influenced the outcome of the elections.
Gender socialization plays a crucial role in shaping the political orientation, behavior and core-values amongst men and women voters. Gender-centered social psychology identifies childhood socialization and adulthood socialization to have special impact in shaping the political behavior of an individual. Gender differences in the political behavior of a person persists throughout his or her life time provided they are a product of certain moral values inculcated in him or her during his upbringing. The effects of childhood differences in the upbringing of an individual are later meditated by adult roles in adulthood, for example the experience women undergo in motherhood. Secondly, the rise in women’s autonomy as a result of changes in the structure of families that have greatly lowered the importance of marriage has played a critical role in widening the gender gap. Married women who used to follow the political affiliations and behaviors of their spouses no longer do so because many women have opted to be independent.
Feminism consciousness has also contributed significantly to the voting preference and pattern amongst women. Although gender identification tends to appear as having miniscule influence on the political attitude of individuals, feminist characteristics may have serious influence on policy attitudes as well as political behavior. Feminism identification can be gauged by how strongly women identify themselves with other women, by egalitarian attitudes towards gender-based roles and through women liberation movements. Lastly, the rising women’s labor forces participation. Employment has boosted women’s overall support for feminist’s political activism and goals through provision of life experiences that have continuously questioned traditional gender roles imposed on women. In addition, paid employment has directly made women to encounter several cases of gender inequality that they otherwise could not have experienced if they remained just home makers. As a result, many women feel galvanized to venture into the political arena and make a difference, both as candidates and as voters.
The gender gap remained in the focus in within the United States political scene since 1980 with the media giving it exclusive coverage during electioneering periods. Although the term is widely used, the significance and size of the gender gap has remained contested. Many critics allude to more prominent racial gaps whereby there seems to be a significantly high support for Democratic candidates between black and white voters and this has had significant implications on the voting patterns exhibited by men and women. However, taking in to account the sheer number of the female voters and the slight margin that elections are usually decided, no party would ever want to go to the ballot without the women’s support. Statistics show that the number of women who turn out to cast their votes has continued to exceed the number of males who vote since the 1967 elections. In addition, the number of women who are eligible to vote has exceeded the number of males who are eligible to vote since 1980. Therefore, it is generally assumed that the prevalence in gender gap became more prominent immediately after women voters became good decision makers in presidential elections. Within the Republican Party, these aforementioned developments have caused more havoc than reprieve since the mainstream media have consistently linked the widening gap to increased importance of women’s issues and abortion rights, and promotion of involvement of more women in party leadership capacities. In a bid to find out whether such solutions can work in regaining grounds among women, the Republican Party has been compelled to take into serious cognizance various aspects of the gender gap in regard to mass politics.
This conventional wisdom however suffers from some few distinct letdowns. Many media houses and scholarly articles have developed a tendency of putting a lot of focus on questioning why most women tend to vote democratically than men. Such concepts assume that men’s voting pattern is constant while women’s behavior and attitudes towards voting keeps changing with time. This is a skewed and highly polarized concept since men have consistently become more conservatives in terms of their party identifications and voting patterns whereas the behavior of women has remained fairly constant over time. Therefore, the gender gap has mainly been as a result of men’s behavior and not women.
The prominence of gender gap keeps gaining ground by the day based on statistics of every election held in the US. It has brought a different view and meaning to the politics and governance of the United States. Since the influence of women cannot be wished away, the Republican Party has a lot to do in terms of modifying its policies to cater for the various issues pertaining to social welfare that appear to be appealing to many women while at the same tome alienating its make members.
