The Partisan Paradox: Religious Commitment and the Gender Gap in Party Identification

Abstract

A large body of scholarly literature points to the growing influence of religious devotion on U.S. partisanship. This article attempts to reconcile the growing religious commitment cleavage in the American party system with the commensurate growth in the gender gap. If women are, on average, more religiously devout than men, and if contemporary shifts in partisanship are disproportionately founded on religious and cultural cleavages, then why are women more likely to identify with the Democratic Party? I pose three possible explanations for this apparent paradox: (1) that the influence of religion is only considerable among the most committed; (2) that men and women politicize their religious beliefs in different ways; and (3) that gender differences in opinion on nonreligious issues sustain the partisan gap, over and above the conservative influence of religiosity. Findings from structural equation analyses demonstrate that religious devotion affects the politics of men and women in similar ways. Religious commitment affects partisan choices but does not override the powerful effects of gender. Gender differences in support for the social welfare state and the preeminence of social welfare opinion in the partisan calculus of men and women largely explain the persistence of the gender gap.