Voting gender gap in the United States facts for kids

A gender gap in voting describes the difference in how men and women vote for a specific candidate. You figure it out by taking the percentage of women who support a candidate and subtracting it from the percentage of men who support that candidate. For example, if 55% of men like a candidate and 44% of women like the same candidate, there's an 11-point gender gap. This gap isn't about differences within men or women, but rather the difference between the two groups.

In the United States, a noticeable gender gap has existed since the 1980 presidential election. Women often prefer Democratic candidates, while men tend to favor Republican ones. This gap has varied, from 11 points in 1996 and 2016 to just 4 points in 1992. Many reasons are given for this gap. These include men shifting their support to the Republican Party and women generally supporting more liberal ideas. The gender gap's impact is even bigger because more women vote than men.

History of the Voting Gap

For 60 years after the Nineteenth Amendment gave women the right to vote in 1920, not much was written about how men and women voted differently. Even though women could vote, many were still hesitant to join the election process.

However, studies of past American National Election Studies data show that women often supported different candidates than men, even before 1980. Before 1960, women tended to vote more Republican. For example, more women supported Thomas E. Dewey in 1948, Dwight D. Eisenhower in 1952 and 1956, and Richard Nixon in 1960. Later, men were more likely to support Barry Goldwater in 1964 and Nixon in 1968 and 1972. In the 1976 election between Gerald Ford and Jimmy Carter, there wasn't much difference in how men and women voted.

This changed with the 1980 presidential election between Carter and Republican Ronald Reagan. For the first time, polls showed differences in candidate preference between genders before Election Day. The final vote confirmed an 8 percentage point gap in how women supported Carter over Reagan. Eleanor Smeal, who led the National Organization for Women at the time, is often credited with being the first to call these differences "gender gaps." After the election, Smeal and others believed the gap was due to the Republican Party not supporting feminist ideas, like the Equal Rights Amendment to the U.S. Constitution.

Gender Gap in Presidential Elections

The size of the gender gap in presidential elections has changed over time. It was as small as 4 percentage points in the 1992 election, which included George H. W. Bush, Bill Clinton, and Ross Perot. It reached 11 percentage points in both the 1996 election (Clinton vs. Bob Dole) and the 2016 election (Donald Trump vs. Hillary Clinton). On average, gender gaps in presidential elections are about 8 percentage points. However, this can change depending on the candidates, their plans, and the important issues in each election.

Gender Gap in Other Elections

The gender gap in elections for Congress and state governors appeared later than in presidential elections. However, by the mid-1990s, it was about the same size, averaging around 9 percentage points. This gap has continued in recent midterm elections. It was 4 percentage points in 2006, 6 percentage points in 2010, and 10 percentage points in 2014.

Why the Gender Gap Exists

Political Party Loyalty

Early differences in voting were thought to be because women were more religious and had less education, lower incomes, or fewer union memberships. People believed these traits made women more conservative than men. This also made them less likely to support President Franklin D. Roosevelt's Democratic New Deal coalition.

After the 1980 election, experts started to look again at why women seemed to be supporting the Democratic Party more. Researchers thought these changes might be due to a growing focus on women's issues, like the Equal Rights Amendment. However, there wasn't much proof that men and women had different opinions on these specific issues. But men and women who identified as feminists did seem to have different views than those who didn't.

After more study, experts found that the gender gap grew not because women became more liberal or supported Democrats more. Instead, it was mostly because men gradually moved toward the Republican Party. This shift in party loyalty began in the 1960s. At that time, the Democratic Party, led by Lyndon B. Johnson, started taking stronger stands on civil rights. This trend became even clearer in the late 1980s and early 1990s. During this time, white men in the South, who used to be Southern Democrats, changed their support to the Republican Party. Today, men are more likely than women to say they are independent voters. Women are more likely to identify as loyal, but not strong, supporters of a party.

Views on Issues

Some experts believe that the main differences in how men and women choose parties and vote come from their different views on political issues. For example, studies have shown that women are more likely to support a larger national government. They also tend to favor stricter gun control laws and the legalization of same-sex marriage. Women also often show more support for issues related to helping others, like welfare and health care policies. Experts suggest these views might come from women's greater tendency to feel and show empathy.

However, on some policy issues, women can be more conservative than men. In other areas, there isn't clear evidence of a big difference between men and women's opinions.

Impact of the Gender Gap

The gender gap in American politics is very important because women generally vote more often than men. Experts believe this is because women feel a stronger sense of civic duty. Also, because women tend to live longer, they make up a larger percentage of registered voters than men. So, even small gender gaps in how men and women vote can have a big impact, especially in close elections.

However, women still tend to have less political knowledge, interest, and involvement. They are also less likely to run for office and are not as well represented in elected positions at local, state, and national levels. This leads to worries about how a lack of fair representation can limit women's influence on politics in the United States.