Increased political awareness amongst previously quiescent groups in the population is a common explanation for electoral change. A recent American example concerns the appearance of a in voting in the 1980s, when men and women displayed consistently different partisan choices for the first time. Carroll surveys several election studies to derive four theoretical explanations for the gender gap.1 The vulnerability theory states that economic threats affected women disproportionately due to their disadvantaged position in society; this vulnerability led women to lean towards candidates who advocate social programs to protect women and children.2 Farah and Klein extend this argument to include issues of personal vulnerability in their analysis of the crime issue in the 1988 presidential election.3 The mobilization theory states that the women's movement focused attention on the candidates' different stances on issues of concern to females; women were therefore more likely to select candidates who supported the Equal Rights Amendment, freedom of choice on abortion, and other rights for women.4 The nurturance theory states that women's roles as mothers made them more sensitive to cuts in social programs and more fearful of the threat of war; women would support candidates whom they felt were likely to protect social welfare and avoid armed conflicts.5 Finally, the autonomy theory states that the gender gap represents a rejection of traditional relationships which had previously associated women's interests with the maintenance of a male-dominated power structure.6