I just read a [url=http://story.news.yahoo.com/n...]very interesting article[/url] on the exploding gender gap in political affiliation.
Basically, there is an ever-increasing tendency for women to vote Democratic and men to vote Republican. According to the article (and common sense), education is also a major factor in poltiical association.
From the article: [b]As education increases, the gender gap grows.
An analysis of more than 40,000 interviews for the USA TODAY/CNN/Gallup Poll from January through November this year shows the trend. Among those with a high school diploma or less, men were inclined by a single percentage point, 45% to 44%, to vote Democratic. Women leaned toward the Democrats by 11 percentage points, 50% to 39%. That's a partisan gap between the sexes of 10 percentage points.
For those who had taken some college courses but not graduated, that gender gap grew to 15 percentage points. Among those with a college degree, it rose to 20. And for voters who had taken postgraduate courses, it reached 28 percentage points - almost triple the gender difference among the least-educated voters.
Men tend to become much more Republican as education and income rise; women move slightly toward the GOP. But there is a twist at the top, among those who have taken postgraduate courses: The number who lean toward the Democrats increases significantly within both groups, although men are still predominantly Republican[/b]
So, in terms of education alone, it seems that the Democratic Party is favored among those less educated, with more education people lean towards the Republican Party, and with even more education there is a tendency to prefer the Democratic Party as well.
This holds true for both genders at each level of education; however, there is still a majority of men who support Republicans at all levels, and women supporting Democrats.
Explanations for why there is such a vast gender gap (in the past two elections, according to this article, women and men would have elected different presidents) include the fact that there are simply biological, sociological, and neurological (I guess that could classify as biological, but I wanted three factors) differences between men and women. Women tend to focus on protecting society, hence their favor for government social safety nets. Men have a tendency to focus more on their personal economic situation, while women concentrate more on the nation's economy.
I'm not really sure what to make of the differences between male and female voters, but it is an interesting topic, I thought. It would be interesting to research this. Hmm, I wonder if there is a gender gap in political affiliation among tbloggers. I'll do an informal poll- comment and let me know your gender and political stance. :wink:
Secondly, that was very interesting. Esp the part about how women prefer social protection and men phocus on personal.
That's like: men=ego; women=superego
(if you want to put it in psychological idealic terms :P)
Simply fascinating!
"Tragically, a nation that was created by intellectuals and visionaries has now been completely taken over by venal corporate gangsters, delusional Christian fruitcakes and hopelessly shallow Texas shit-kickers." -Tom Robbins
