What You Didn't Know About the Gender Gap in Voting

Off Our Backs, Jul/Aug 2004 by Stachowski, Roxanne

We know about the gender gap in voting-it has been a statistically significant and persistent phenomenon for decades. But up until the 1980s there existed a different gender gap, called the "traditional gender gap," where women voted Republican slightly more than men. The traditional gender gap peaked during the 1950s and 1960s. However, since the 1980s, the "modern gender gap" has emerged in which women are more likely to vote for the Democratic candidate than are men. For example, in the 2000 election, women supported Al Gore by 11 percent more than men did. Gallup polls show that in the three full years that George W. Bush has served, he has received higher job approval ratings from men than women in all polls except three.

So what can explain the shift from women as a group being more conservative to becoming more liberal politically?

Since the 1960s, the number of unmarried women has increased dramatically. Interestingly, married women as a group are still mostly conservative, but unmarried women-whether single or divorced-are much more liberal. Today, whereas 56 percent of married women vote Republican, only 39 percent of unmarried women vote Republican. Married women, it is postulated, are more likely to be influenced by their husbands in their voting patterns.

Additionally, among women of color, black women not only turn out to vote in higher numbers than black men but also vote overwhelminly in favor of Democratic candidates. In the elections of 1998, black women voted 92 percent in favor of a Democratic candidate compared with 84 percent of black men who favored a Democratic candidate.

So the emergence of the new gender gap has kept in step with the number of unmarried women as divorce rates peaked in the late 1970s and early 1980s. And although the divorce rate has slightly decreased since its all-time high in 1981, the number of divorced people has increased from 4 million in 1970 to 18.3 million in 2003. As more women became unmarried, they began to vote strongly with the Democratic party.

Getting Out the Vote

If we want more women to vote, it makes sense to focus on unmarried women and especially unmarried black women as potential voters. They currently vote less often than married women. Unmarried women make up 46 percent of all voting age women and 56 percent of all unregistered women. If unmarried women had voted at the same rate as married women, six million more women would have voted in 2000.

But it isn't surprising that these women have lower voter turnout rates than their white, married counterparts. Unmarried women and women of color make less money and have less spare time. These are the single mothers who have to pick up their kids and make dinner. These are the women who work overtime to support themselves and who get up too early and come home too late. These are the women who suffer from the inconveniences of being able to register to vote only online or at the DMV and being able to vote only until 7 pm. Then they get blamed for not voting because the government does not want to take responsibility for the poor voting system that it has relied on for so long. Unmarried women have the most potential for growth in registration numbers and actual turnout numbers.

Unmarried women are identified as "change voters," meaning that they are dissatisfied with the direction that the country is being led. They want their government to do more for them as a group.

What You Can Do

There are several groups that have organized to address eligible women voters, in particular unmarried women and women of color. Women's Voices, Women's Vote (www.wvwv.org) has organized a system to allow women to register over the phone. They have compiled lists of unmarried women voters from the swing states on their website (which they encourage anyone to use) and suggest holding calling parties where everyone gets together and calls the women to register them to vote over the phone. A group called 1000 Flowers sends registration packages to nail salons that allow women to register while getting their nails done. The Feminist Majority Leadership Alliance conducts nonpartisan registration campaigns on college campuses that target young women and women of color.

The important thing is that every woman vote. It requires the initiative of a nation to have every eligible woman voting on November 2, but it only takes one woman to ask her neighbor, her hairdresser, her nanny or even her mother if she is registered to vote and whether she will be voting on election day. We know how important it is for women to vote in 2004, so let's all make sure that all of us do.

Sources:

www.wvwv.org Women's Voices, Women's Vote

"Women Voters Key in 2004 Presidential Election" by Darlisa Y. Crawford

"Single Women's Clout Goes Untapped" by Gayle White

"Democratic Trends, The Bottom Line, and the case for Emotional Intelligence in the Workplace" by Susan Dunn

"Rising Tide: Gender Equality and Cultural Change" by Ronald Inglehart and Pippa Norris

www.census.gov/prod/2004pubs/03statab/vitstat.pdf