gender gap in presidential elections

[🐒Gods of Prosperity🔱🐲💸]

http://www.jofreeman.com/polhistory/gendergap.htm

According to this article, a voting gender gap benefited the Republicans from Hoover to Eisenhower, and then shifted after the 1960s. 
What do you think where the main factors? It is often held that women are intrinsically more liberal, but  it doesn't look like there was much of a difference in voting between men and women for Goldwater.  Is the gender gap increasing or decreasing?

[nclib]

Actually part of the shift in the gender gap had to do with the fact that more women were working outside the home. IIRC, working women are more Democratic than working men even before 1980.

[Jensen]

How much do you think abortion plays into the gender gap?

[🐒Gods of Prosperity🔱🐲💸]

overall the difference between pro-life attitudes in men and women are not very big. single women and those without children tend more pro-choice, while married women with children tend more pro-life.  I imagine it could explain a gap of about 2 percent at most.

[HAnnA MArin County]

Didn't women vote for Obama 56-43? Men, I think, was 49-48 Obama. Abortion may play into it, but even in Congress, the majority of females are Democrats. History may also have something to do with it, going back to women's suffrage in 1920 and the 19th Amendment narrowly passed at the insistence of President Woodrow Wilson (a Democrat), but from my understanding, back then Republicans were more amendable to women's rights as opposed to the Democrats seeing as how Republicans were more liberal back then and Democrats were more conservative as opposed to their respective ideologies today.

Feminism may also play a role in the gender gap. Challenging traditional gender roles and norms of what was once expected of women (to be homemakers and mothers, etc.), women's liberation, were considered radical/liberal so maybe that's why women vote Democratic today? Democrats are also the party of minorities and while women make up a majority in the country, they are more subject to sexism and discrimination and prejudices (pay inequities, sex discrimination, etc.). Perhaps women see Republicans today as the good ole boys' club made up of all those angry old white men? Not for sure. I'm not a woman so I can't really say definitively; just offering my opinions. The gender is an interesting phenomenon, I will say.

[Vepres]

I feel like 2008's had to do with the Iraq war and McCain's militaristic attitude.

[Mr. Morden]

http://www.jofreeman.com/polhistory/gendergap.htm

According to this article, a voting gender gap benefited the Republicans from Hoover to Eisenhower, and then shifted after the 1960s.

It "benefited" Republicans?  Not sure how the gender gap "benefits" anyone.  It's just the differential between how men vote and how women vote.  But it's not like women's votes count for more than men's votes, so how can you say that one side or the other benefits from it?

[CultureKing]

http://www.jofreeman.com/polhistory/gendergap.htm

According to this article, a voting gender gap benefited the Republicans from Hoover to Eisenhower, and then shifted after the 1960s.

It "benefited" Republicans?  Not sure how the gender gap "benefits" anyone.  It's just the differential between how men vote and how women vote.  But it's not like women's votes count for more than men's votes, so how can you say that one side or the other benefits from it?

Though women do vote in larger numbers.

[🐒Gods of Prosperity🔱🐲💸]

http://www.jofreeman.com/polhistory/gendergap.htm

According to this article, a voting gender gap benefited the Republicans from Hoover to Eisenhower, and then shifted after the 1960s.

It "benefited" Republicans?  Not sure how the gender gap "benefits" anyone.  It's just the differential between how men vote and how women vote.  But it's not like women's votes count for more than men's votes, so how can you say that one side or the other benefits from it?

yes you are right that is misleading. on the other hand, there is a gender gap in voting because women won the right to vote, which benefited the Republican candidates. in today's context, the gender gap itself does not benefit anyone.

[SingingAnalyst]

1920-1960 women were 2-6 points more Republican, perhaps being more Protestant, more religious, less tolerant of alcohol, and the fact that many women didn't vote in the Solid South.

1964 women 2 pts more Dem

1968 women 4 pts more Dem and men 4 pts more pro Wallace'

1972-1976 no gender gap to speak of

1980-present women 7-10 pts more Dem (the only hiccup was in 1992 when women were just 3 pts less likely to vote Bush than men; men were 4 pts more likely to vote Perot)

Abortion may be an issue, as a woman age 55+ or a man may be pro choice but it is not as likely to affect their voting as a woman 18-45. I am struck how surveys directly about abortion show no difference between men and women.