This diary was written by Elise but for some reason she can't post it, so here it is. All mojo belongs to Elise.
The female voter has been and still is the subject of much study. Campaigns want to know how to talk to female voters, media folks want to talk about the different kinds of female voters that are out there - soccer moms, security moms, single moms, single women (apparently these are "Sex In the City" voters), young, old, middle-aged, etc. What issues bring these different women out? Do they come out for Republicans or Democrats? Can we really categorize women into groups as a result of gender? Or should "we" (the media, pundits, etc.) instead simply place them in the usual categories according to class - blue collar, white collar, "pink" collar, creative class, working class, etc.? What's the best way to talk about female voters and what do we know about them?
I'll attempt to answer some of these questions below, but I'm certainly open to your interpretations, so please do add them in the comments. Let's make this a conversation...
Several weeks ago I wrote a Top Comments diary called, Top Comments: Sex and the City Voters. If you'll indulge me a moment, I'd like to repost some of that here for context purposes.
Over at Huffington Post today, Morra Aarons-Mele posted a piece entitled, No Sex Please, We're Voting. Perhaps you're wondering what she means? Well, in case you haven't heard, single women and their voting habits (or lack thereof) are apparently the talk of the media these days! Single women voters have been called, "Single Anxious Women", and "Sex in the City Voters" recently, and apparently they are going to be "the" group we (the media) talks about this election season. Forget NASCAR Dads and Security or Soccer Moms - CNN wants to cover sexy single women! What better way to get ratings than that! (Apparently they're running short on missing blonde girls? I honestly couldn't say as I've stopped watching for health reasons.)
Here's what Aarons-Mele has to say about it:
But the coverage stemming from concern about "Single Anxious Women" (even called the "Sex in the City Voter") not only doesn't reflect the data, it trivializes women." Even in 2007, women are pitched civics lessons as if we can only relate to global affairs if the issues are dressed in sexy shoes, just folks style dishing, or are at lunch with Samantha, Carrie and the girls.
Well, Margie Omero at pollster.com has the numbers...
There is indeed a "Marriage Gap" among women. Married people vote at a higher rate than non-married people. But the marriage gap is actually larger among men. According to Census reports from the 2004 election, married men are as likely to vote (63% turnout) as married women (65%). But unmarried men (which includes single, divorced, separated, and widowed) are substantially less likely to vote (46%) than unmarried women (55%). The marriage gap is 10 points among women, and is nearly twice that (18 points) among men.
If you look specifically at single, never-married adults, this pattern holds. A majority of single women voted in 2004 (52%), compared to fewer single men (43%). This is even true with 18 to 24 year-olds (47% of single women in that group vote, compared to 40% of single men).
The number of women voters isn't just already good, it's rising with every election. In 2004, only the 65+ age group has more men voting than women - as you can see in this table.
Again, from pollster.com:
Census data here and here [2006 data found with this program] show that women have been turning out at higher rates than men in every Presidential election since 1980, and in every mid-term election since 1986.
So far during this primary we have seen record turn out for Democrats in every single state. We keep hearing surprise that women are turning out to vote in such large numbers. From the very first caucus in Iowa we've talked about who women were turning out for. CNN entrance and/or exit polls provide us with some answers. We can see in Iowa that Obama won 36% of the vote among men and unmarried women, but he also garnered 30% of the vote from married women. Clinton took 32% of married women and only 25% of men and unmarried women. Edwards fared better among married women, at 27%, than he did with men and unmarried women, where he had 22% of the vote.
So what are the issues that each candidate is talking about that will bring out women voters? I don't want to parse out each primary state's results and discuss or try to consider who got which votes and why. That's quite the task to take on. Instead, let's talk briefly about some of the issues that are being talked about which may or may not be drawing women to the polls.
The issues that are bringing voters to the polls this primary season? The War in Iraq, healthcare, economy, and general concerns about our standing in the world, or foreign policy issues seem to top every single phone call (while phonebanking), every single door knock (while canvassing), and the candidates themselves seem to revolve around these issues during debates and press releases. People have been incredibly disappointed with the Bush Administration's failures on all of these issues - and as a result, voters are coming out to demand a fix.
Now, there isn't necessarily 100% causation here, but if we look at the numbers of women voting in Democratic primaries vs. Republican primaries - we can see that women are moving away from voting in the Republican primary and moving towards the Democratic primary.
What I believe this says is that Democrats are speaking to the issues that women voters care about - the issues that the majority of Americans care about (those listed above). These are "bread and butter" issues - these are things that Bush has entirely ruined, or things that Bush has ignored. When we watch the Democratic debates, vs. the Republican debates, we can see that Democrats are speaking to the issues that women care about and that Republicans are not. Watching a Republican debate is like watching a contest for who can be the biggest hatemonger - and that's being generous. We've found out who hates immigrants more, who hates brown people more, who hates the IRS, who hates gay people, who hates the poor more, who loves torture more, and who wants to stay at war for longer - for no reason.
Younger women are voting on these same issues, but obviously we're concerned about the candidate's policy plans for women. Barack Obama's plans are detailed here. Hillary Clinton's plans are detailed here. Both our Democratic candidates are solidly pro-choice and have been working to further the causes of women throughout their entire careers. Democrats are speaking to women - and women are listening and responding by voting in greater numbers so far this year than before. Hopefully this trend continues for a long time.