Gender

[humder]

 Obama won men by 1% and he won women by 13%. Why is there such a large difference in gender in American politics? Why does each gender vote the way they do?

[Verily]

There are a variety of reasons. Minority women (particularly black women) are much more likely to vote than minority men, and almost all minorities vote Democratic, so that skews the female vote towards the Democrats compared to the male vote. Otherwise, the gender gap based on parties is largest among white Catholics, with female white Catholics voting Democratic and male white Catholics strongly Republican. There I suspect it's cultural, and it would be worth looking at gender gaps in Italy and Ireland to come to conclusions.

[RIP Robert H Bork]

Republicans oppose affirmative action.

[RIP Robert H Bork]

There are a variety of reasons. Minority women (particularly black women) are much more likely to vote than minority men, and almost all minorities vote Democratic, so that skews the female vote towards the Democrats compared to the male vote. Otherwise, the gender gap based on parties is largest among white Catholics, with female white Catholics voting Democratic and male white Catholics strongly Republican. There I suspect it's cultural, and it would be worth looking at gender gaps in Italy and Ireland to come to conclusions.

There are plenty of white female Catholics who vote Republican.

[Padfoot]

The feminist movement has also been strongly associated with the Democratic Party.  The GOP's focus on "traditional family values" doesn't exactly help their cause here either considering roughly 70% of mothers hold a job in addition to raising their families.  This is yet another example of how the GOP has screwed itself by clinging to the way things were.