John Sides at the Monkey Cage points to an article in the Weekly Standard about the voting booth gender gap. Sides says that the political science research shows that over time, women haven't gotten more liberal, but men have been more likely to vote Republican. Women haven't changed; men have.

Ages ago, I saw a paper presentation at conference that looked at the voting patterns of individuals with children. They found that women became more likely to prefer liberal or progressive issues, after they became mothers, while men were likely to prefer conservative or libertarian issues, after they became fathers.

I don't remember the title of the paper or the authors, so I can't check out their findings, but their conclusion seems to pass the common sense test. Mothers are typically in charge of dealing with childcare and education. They are more likely to witness the inadequacy of these systems and want the government to improve them. Because genderized divisions of labor still exist, the men are in charge of paying taxes on their new homes and protecting their families. They are going to get more grouchy about tax increases and more concerned about law and order matters.

This is all speculation, of course. Just curious if these vague memorizes of a conference paper gels with your experiences.