Gender gap was a term utilized by women’s organizations in the early 1980s to draw attention to the important changes in voter choice, turnout, and partisanship occurring among women. The concept of the gender gap emerged concurrently with women voting in larger numbers than men. Even though there is evidence of the gender gap back to the 1950s, it was not until the 1980s that it began to emerge as a real and influential phenomenon in national politics. The transformation in the turnout of women was one of the most significant political changes of this time. Before 1980, the electorate was primarily influenced by white male voters. In the 1960s and 1970s, women were estimated to vote 10 percent less often than men, and even less frequently in previous decades. In the 1980 election, however, significant numbers of women participated in the presidential election, marking the first time that women voted at a higher rate then men. This is still the current trend in American electoral patterns. As women’s roles in society changed through the 1970s, so did their party identification, from Republican to Democratic, while at the same time white male voters increasingly voted Republican. As of 1980, single women have consistently supported Democratic candidates at higher rates then men across all ranges of demographic categories including race, age, and education. The combination of more women voters, more women identifying themselves as Democrats, and more women supporting Democratic candidates in the 1980s has signified an important trend in voting that helped set the stage for the Democratic presidential victories of the 1990s.
See also women’s rights and status.
—Michele Rutledge
World History
