White women, WYD?

Abstract

In 2016, political scientists were under the assumption that women would vote overwhelmingly for Hillary Clinton. But why did they make this assumption? Having believed that womanhood works under a universal umbrella, they conceptualized women as a political collective, who would share the same desire to elect the first female President. But what they soon realized was that this could not be any more wrong. Assumed uniformity by gender is not any more useful for women as it is for men. These assumptions had clear electoral consequences, manifesting in polls, which highlighted that assuming solidarity among women who hold no allegiance to one another otherwise was problematic. While a majority of women did vote for Hillary Clinton, particularly Black women, who are known to be the most reliable voting bloc among Democrats, we noticed that white women, particularly non-educated white women, did not adhere to this voting trend. In other words, non-educated white women did not vote for Hillary Clinton. Trump’s victory stumped the majority of pollsters and political commentators, who expected women to carry Hillary Clinton to the White House, as they expected Black Americans to carry Barack Obama in 2008. But are these electoral results really all that surprising?