Last Time Democrats Won a Majority of White Male Voters

[H. Ross Peron]

Did the Gender Gap exist in 1964 or did it come into play later?

[Adam Griffin]

Seems like I recall seeing a series of maps published somewhere off-site (something like "If Only White Males Voted in Each Election") that suggested Democrats hadn't won the white male vote since shortly after suffrage, but that would imply that the gender gap would have obviously been very small for those first few decades.

EDIT: I'm guessing 1964 would be an exception.

[Beet]

The gender gap was first identified after the 1980 election- Ronald Reagan was the first presidential candidate to oppose the Equal Rights Amendment. Women voted for Nixon in 1960.

[TDAS04]

I'm guessing LBJ in 1964, which was also the last time a Democrat carried the white vote.  However, there apparently wasn't a gender gap in 1976, when Carter defeated Ford 50-48 among each gender.  There was a huge gender gap in 1980, though.  Reagan barely beat Carter among women while crushing him among men.

[🐒Gods of Prosperity🔱🐲💸]

1964

Goldwater probably carried White Male Protestants Over 50 years of age.

http://www.gallup.com/poll/9454/election-polls-vote-groups-19601964.aspx

[Indy Texas]

I remember reading somewhere that in 1960, Kennedy won the male vote overall while Nixon won the female vote overall (bizarre, I know). Not sure how that changes if non-whites are removed, but since the electorate was almost entirely white yet, I'm guessing Kennedy probably at least narrowly won white men.

[Southern Senator North Carolina Yankee]

The current gender gap is a product of the 1960's. The previous gender gap was one of men being more Democratic then Women. Some have discussed how women helped to power the victories of Harding in 1920 and Ike in 1952, so 1960's results would still reflect that old paradigm. There is also an old song from I think the 1940's that was posted on the forum back in 2011 or 2012, that basically whined about men voting in Democrats only to have women go vote them back out again.

[DS0816]

I remember reading somewhere that in 1960, Kennedy won the male vote overall while Nixon won the female vote overall (bizarre, I know). Not sure how that changes if non-whites are removed, but since the electorate was almost entirely white yet, I'm guessing Kennedy probably at least narrowly won white men.

Not bizarre.

Dwight Eisenhower, with his re-election from 1956, was the last Republican to carry females better than males nationally.

This is just another example of realignments. And this one concerns the realigning brands of the two major political parties.

[SingingAnalyst]

1964. Every GOP candidate since then won the white male vote. 1984 was legendary: Reagan probably came close to 75% of white men age 18-21.

[All Along The Watchtower]

1964

Goldwater probably carried White Male Protestants Over 50 years of age.

http://www.gallup.com/poll/9454/election-polls-vote-groups-19601964.aspx

I wonder how much of that is skewed by the Deep South (though granted, older white male Protestants in the North would be a heavily Republican group in 1964 to begin with ).

[All Along The Watchtower]

I remember reading somewhere that in 1960, Kennedy won the male vote overall while Nixon won the female vote overall (bizarre, I know). Not sure how that changes if non-whites are removed, but since the electorate was almost entirely white yet, I'm guessing Kennedy probably at least narrowly won white men.

Not really bizarre, considering how much of the Democratic Party base back then was white working-class men, and how many of them were Catholic and/or unionized back then.

Meanwhile, I suspect that the more affluent, married, white Protestant women (i.e. Republicans) would have voted at a higher rate than the more working-class  and downscale women.

[Sumner 1868]

1964 was also the last time a majority of white women voted for a Democrat, though Clinton eked out a plurality in 1996.

[SingingAnalyst]

The emergence of a prototype of today's gender gap in 1968, with women 4% more likely to vote for Humphrey and men 4% more for Wallace, is more evidence of how the 1968 election was a harbinger for every election 2000-2012 (with the GOP absorbing most of the Wallace vote esp in the South). The gender gap is partly explained by the fact that many Black and low-income White men, who would otherwise vote Democratic, are felons and can't vote. Marital status matters too: in a 2014 poll of MI voters for Senate, about 45% of married men, married women, and single men voted GOP. Single women however voted only 25% GOP.

[SingingAnalyst]

Did the Gender Gap exist in 1964 or did it come into play later?

Yes to both. In 1952-56-60 women were more Republican. In 1964 and 1968 women were more Democratic. In 1972 and 1976 there was almost no gender gap. The modern day 6-10 point gap came in 1980.