Home  › Women Voters and the Gender Gap

Susan Carroll, Rutgers University

For six decades after women obtained the right to vote in 1920, they voted at lower rates than men. However, in the 1980 election women caught up with men, and according to U.S. Census data, in every subsequent election women have voted at an increasingly higher rate than men. In the 2000 elections, 56.2% of women reported voting, compared with 53.1% of men. Because women are a larger proportion of the population and vote at higher rates, about 7.8 million more women than men voted in the 2000 elections, and at least that many more women than men are likely to vote in 2004.

Significant efforts are underway in 2004 to increase the number of women who register and vote. Perhaps the most visible nonpartisan effort is "Women's Voices, Women's Vote," targeted at unmarried women, who vote at lower rates and tend to be more progressive in their political preferences than married women. The two presidential campaigns also have partisan initiatives ("W Stands for Women" and "Women for Kerry") aimed at registering and mobilizing specific subgroups of women sympathetic to their respective candidates.

A gender gap in voting-the difference in the proportion of women and the proportion of men voting for any given candidate-has been evident in every presidential election since 1980, ranging in exit polls from a low of 4 percentage points in 1992 to a high of 11 percentage points in 1996. Similar to the pattern found in previous presidential elections, polls conducted thus far in 2004 have shown women more likely than men to favor the Democratic candidate, John Kerry, while men more often than women prefer the Republican candidate, George W. Bush. The most important issues for women in this election, like those for men, are the war on terrorism and the war in Iraq, on the one hand, and the economy and jobs, on the other. While women and men see the same issues as most important, women have somewhat different perspectives than men on these issues. Women are less likely than men to think the U.S. is safer from terrorism now than it is was before 9-11, and women have more reservations than do men about our involvement in Iraq. Women are more likely than men to say that our country is on the wrong track rather than moving in the right direction. And although women, like men, are concerned about jobs, they also are very concerned about health care and retirement security.

While only a small proportion of voters remain undecided in their choice of candidates in the presidential election, a disproportionate number of the undecided voters are women. Research has traditionally found that more women than men make their voting decisions late in the campaign, and it appears that this election will be no exception.

The presidential candidate who better recognizes and responds to the growing clout of women voters may well find himself in the White House for the next four years. Victory in this election will likely go to the candidate who better mobilizes supportive subgroups of female voters and develops effective issue-based appeals that speak to the concerns of women, especially women who ma1ke their decisions late in the campaign.

Recent Publications and Websites on Women Voters and the Gender Gap

Center for American Women and Politics, Fact Sheets on "The Gender Gap" and "Sex Differences in Voter Turnout"

Dolan, Kathleen A. 2004. Voting for Women: How the Public Evaluates Women Candidates. Boulder: Westview.

Mondak, Jeffery J. and Mary R. Anderson. 2004. "The Knowledge Gap: A Reexamination of Gender-Based Differences in Political Knowledge." Journal of Politics 66:2 (May).

Carroll, Susan ed. 2003. Women and American Politics: New Questions, New Directions. Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press

Inglehart, Ronald and Pippa Norris. 2003. Rising Tide: Gender Equality and Cultural Change Around the World Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press.

Norrander, Barbara. 2003. "The Intraparty Gender Gap: Differences between Male and Female Voters in the 1980-2000 Presidential Primaries." PS: Political Science and Politics 36:2 (April): 181-186.

Norris, Pippa. 2003. "The Gender Gap: Old Challenges, New Approaches," in Women and American Politics: New Questions, New Directions. Susan J. Carroll ed. Oxford: Oxford University Press. 146-170.

Sanbonmatsu, K. 2003. "Political Knowledge and Gender Stereotypes." American Politics Research 31:6 (November): 575-594.

Kaufmann, Karen M. 2002. "Culture Wars, Secular Realignment and the Gender Gap in Party Identification." Political Behavior 24 (3):107-126.

Sanbonmatsu, Kira. 2002. Democrats, Republicans, and the Politics of Women's Place. Ann Arbor, MI: University of Michigan Press.

Burns, Nancy, Kay Lehman Schlozman, and Sidney Verba. 2001. The Private Roots of Public Action: Gender, Equality, and Political Participation. Cambridge: Harvard University Press.

Schlesinger, Mark and Caroline Heldman. 2001."Gender Gap or Gender Gaps? New Perspectives on Support for Government Action and Policies." Journal of Politics 63 (1):59-92.

Hardy-Fanta, Carol. 2000. "A Latino Gender Gap? Evidence from the 1996 Election."

Kaufmann, Karen M. and John R. Petrocik. 1999. "The Changing Politics of American Men: Understanding the Sources of the Gender Gap." American Journal of Political Science 43( 3):864-887.

Norrander, Barbara. 1999. "Evolution of the Gender Gap." Public Opinion Quarterly 63 (Winter):566-576.

Various Contributors (Sigel, Carroll, Andersen, Jamieson, Frankovic). 1999. "Symposium: Gender and Voting Behavior in the 1996 Presidential Elections." PS: Political Science and Politics 32 (March):4-22.