The Evolution of the Gender Gap

Abstract

Most studies of the gender gap focus on the greater attraction of the Democratic party for women than for men. Scholars and journalists first noticed the gender gap in connection with the 1980 presidential election (Mueller 1988). Thus, initial explanations of the gender gap centered on how Ronald Reagan's opposition to abortion and the Equal Rights Amendment led women to be less likely than men to vote for Reagan. These women's issues, however, were subsequently found not to explain the gender gap, since men's and women's positions on these issues tended to be the same (Cook, Jelen, and Wilcox 1992; Mansbridge 1985). Subsequent explanations for the gender gap turned to issue areas where men's and women's positions diverged, such as use of force abroad or at home and compassion issues (Conover and Sapiro 1993; Fite, Genest, and Wilcox 1990; Shapiro and Mahajan 1986; Smith 1984). Feminist attitudes also were debated as the source of the gender gap (Conover 1988; Cook and Wilcox 1991). Finally, varying economic positions and differences in weighting economic factors in voting decisions also have been argued to underlie the gender gap (Chaney, Alvarez, and Nagler 1998; Erie and Rein 1988; May and Stephenson 1994; Miller 1988; Seltzer, Newman, and Leighton 1997; Welch and Hibbing 1992). Despite the focus on different sets of issues, most research still attempts to explain why women have a greater attraction to the Democratic party than do men. Scholars are increasingly using a longitudinal perspective to understand the origins of the gender gap, and these researchers are finding that the greatest movement in partisan preferences in recent decades has occurred among men who left the Democratic party more quickly than did women (Kaufmann and Petrocik 1997; Kenski 1988; Miller 1991; Wirls 1986). In addition, men's and women's voting patterns diverged before the 1980 election. Men were more likely than women to vote for George Wallace in 1968 and Richard Nixon in 1972 (Norrander 1999). To better understand the long-term evolution of the gender gap two factors need to be considered. First, changes in partisan preferences have been greater in the