And one other point: much of the talk about the “gender gap” is misleading, suggesting that it reveals some sort of common feminine "agenda."
Let me quote a couple of key conclusions from a careful (and, to my mind, convincing) analysis of the 1996 Presidential election. This analysis effectively “dismantles” the Myth of the Soccer Mom, and demonstrates that such factors as class, race, education, religious belief, and professional status play a greater role in how women vote than shared views on so-called "women's issues." Most interesting, in my opinion, is the fact that the least educated women and the most educated women tend to vote Democratic. I wonder whether that holds true for men as well.
Clinton captures the votes of two-thirds or higher of African American women (89 percent), single mothers (64 percent), union households (61 percent) and residents of large cities (62 percent). Clinton is much less likely to draw in socially and economically secure women, such as suburban women (51 percent), married women (47 percent), married mothers (45 percent), regular churchgoers (44 percent) and homemakers (37 percent).
Women with some college and a college degree are significantly less likely to support Clinton than high school educated or less and post graduate women. This curvilinear relationship illustrates the interaction of socio-economic status and values, where highly educated women tend to be more secular and therefore, more likely to support Clinton.
harvard.edu
One criterion omitted in the data cited in the above study is the age criterion. Women aged 18-24 tend to vote Democratic (as do males in that same age category).
Clinton's strongest support came from young women; 57 percent of women between the ages of 18 and 24 voted for the president.In particular, 87 percent of young African-American women...voted for Clinton.
closeup.org
However, I must admit that the data do seem to support you on one point. That is, if you Old (But Not Yet Dead) White Males keep your wives "in the kitchen, with a mop in one hand, a broom in the other and their left foot in a bucket of ammonia," they are more likely to vote "your way."
Ho Ho Ho Ho.
Joan
P.S. Just in case you take me for a "Clintonista" (Oh, horrors!), I should note that although I am a registered Democrat, and a highly educated economically independent female one at that, I voted for a third-party candidate in 1996. It was a "protest vote." (God would have struck me dead with a thunderbolt right there in the voting booth had I pulled the lever for Dole, of course.) |
