From Traditional To Modern Conceptions of Gender Equality in Politics: Gradual Change and Lingering Doubts

Abstract

A n important development in American politics during the 1980s was the disappearance of gender differences in turnout. The Center for Political Studies (CPS) conducted voter validation studies for each of its National Election Studies (NES) during the last decade except 1982. On each of the four NESs, the difference between women's and men's validated rates of turnout was statistically insignificant. The CPS found, for example, that 56 percent of women and 59 percent of men had actually gone to the polls in 1988. A percentage difference that small could happen by chance in three out of every four surveys of the same size (x2=1 .2 0, df=1, p=.27). Women now also equal men in reported voting in local elections. The National Opinion Research Center's (NORC) 1987 General Social Survey found that women were just as likely as men to report voting in all or almost all local elections (68 vs. 68 percent).1 Gender parity in turnout ends a tradition of lower turnout among women dating back to ratification of the 19th Amendment just before the 1920 election. Much has changed in women's involvement in society and politics during the past quarter-century. They are more likely to be in the workforce, even if they are married and have young children. By 1987, for example, 57 percent of married women with children under six years old were in the labor force. This was a 27 percent increase from 1970 (U.S. Bureau of the Census [BOC] 1987: 374). In addition to the increasing likelihood to vote noted above, more women have