Voting gender gap in the United States

rdf:langString Voting gender gap in the United States

rdf:langString A gender gap in voting typically refers to the difference in the percentage of men and women who vote for a particular candidate. It is calculated by subtracting the percentage of women supporting a candidate from the percentage of men supporting a candidate (e.g., if 55 percent of men support a candidate and 44 percent of women support the same candidate, there is an 11-point gender gap). Contrary to many popular media accounts, gender gaps are not within-the-gender differences in candidate support, nor are they the aggregate total of men's and women's within gender differences (e.g., men +10 Republican and women +12 Democrat is not equivalent to a 22-point gender gap). There has been a notable gender gap in the United States at least since the 1980 presidential election. Women tend to favor Democratic candidates while men tend to favor Republican ones; the gap has ranged from 11 points in 1996 and 2016 to 4 points in 1992. The gap has been attributed to various causes, including a shifting of loyalty among men to the Republican Party and generally higher support for liberal positions among women. The effect of the gender gap is magnified by the fact that women vote in higher numbers than men.