Voting gender gap in the United States

The voting gender gap is the difference in voting turnout between men and women .

With the advent of women's suffrage in 1920 many women were off to the polls. But in recent history women have exceeded men in voter turnout. From 1976 to 2008 women have steadily spread the gap. For more than 60 years after women’s suffrage the female population turned out less often than men. This was true from 1920 to 1980. However, after 1980 a reversal occurred and a gender gap in voting between men and women has been evident ever since. The range is from a low of 4 points in 1988, to a high of 10 percentage points in 1996. In many countries across the world, women have shown the same pattern as women in the U.S. Recent studies have shown women throughout advanced industrial societies are voting as much as men and with the same voting behaviors as women in the U.S.

A gender gap had existed in Europe before the 1990s where women were more likely to support conservative political parties. During the 1990s this gender gap had disappeared. It still exists in Eastern European countries.

In 1996, Bill Clinton obtained a vote share of 54% among women voters, and 43% among men voters. His overall lead over Bob Dole was just over 8 million votes, but his lead among women voters was 11 million.

The only president to get a higher vote share from women was Barack Obama with 56%.

In every presidential election year from 1980 - 2008 women have outnumbered men in voting Democratic and the same is true for men outnumbering women voting Republican. From 1980 forward there is a definitive difference in partisanship between male and female voters. The following data was gathered by the Center for American Women and Politics from 13 different sources ranging from October 1994 – September 1996. The various polls (Gallup, CBS, Times Mirror Center, Time, CNN) all found women and men to divided, ranging from 10-25 percentage points, on all of the following issues

In the aftermath of women's suffrage, women now have a higher voter turnout than men, and women's interest in holding high political office has also significantly increased. In 1984 Geraldine Ferraro ran for Vice-President with then Democratic Presidential candidate Walter Mondale. In 2008 Sarah Palin ran as the Vice-Presidential candidate with John McCain on the Republican ticket. In 2009, 78 of the 435 members of congress were women, 17 in the Senate and 73 in the House. In 2016 Hillary Clinton became the first woman presidential nominee to run for President of the United States on a major party ticket, winning the popular vote, though she lost the election to Donald Trump. In 2017, 104 of the 435 members of congress were women, 21 in the Senate and 104 in the House.

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