Breaking Down the Gender Gap

Yes, there was a gender gap in last week's election, but it is mistake to belief that all women voted for Obama. Gender isn't voting destiny. I've said that many times on this blog. 

Dante Chinni has a good article about this in the Atlantic's new Sexes channel. He writes,

The point? Obama, and Democrats in general, consistently do better with women than men when you compare voters within a racial or ethnic group. That's the "gap." But simply grouping all women together and thinking they are reliably Democratic is wrong. If you were to list gender and racial/ethnic groups by their Democratic vote on Tuesday, the list would go like this: black women (96 percent), black men (87 percent), Hispanic women (76 percent), Hispanic men (65 percent), white women (42 percent) and white men (35 percent).

In other words, if you want to place a bet on how someone will vote and you have to choose between knowing that person's gender or their race/ethnicity, you're better off learning their race or ethnicity. That marker is more telling.

Really, this post was just an excuse to get you guys to check out the Sexes section of the Atlantic. It's new. It's shiny. It deals with chick stuff. 

 

4 thoughts on “Breaking Down the Gender Gap

  1. It’s similar with children as well – there is more diversity within each gender than there is comparing one to the other. Hence even with kids you can’t make assumptions that all girls are like this or all boys are like that.

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  2. Here’s an article on the geographical location of those white voters. Obama still ran ahead ahead of Kerry with white voters in most of the country, excepting the south. They mention my county–Chester County, PA, which still went Republican by a bit but where Obama has had the best showing of any democrat since Johnson. Next Presidential election my eldest daughter will vote–and Obama won her high school vote by 68%. This year our Republican state rep won by around 300 votes. I think this county will continue to be problematic for Republicans, and it’s the only surefire Republican county left around Philadelphia.
    http://www.tnr.com/blog/electionate/110039/the-gop-has-problems-white-voters-too

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