Women Troubles and Other Musings on Voting Behavior
I’ve been out of town for the last few days, so I’m just getting to the Sunday papers, but it appears that Linda Hirshman, a retiring women’s studies professor, has an interesting piece about the female vote and Hillary. In her decidedly unscientific sample, she noted the surprising number of women who say they are dependent on their husbands for political information and guidance, and the discrepancy between the amount of women who express an interest in public affairs, compared with men. And this is among beltway Washington-area, educated women!
Will women voters carry Hillary into the White House? My guess is that women voters, when confronted with a historic opportunity will judge a female candidate in the same way that they judge a male candidate. Women as solidly Democratic voters may be overblown – there has been no change in support among women since the election of FDR. Rather, the discrepancy is among men who abandoned the Democratic Party in droves following the New Deal.
If any Democratic coalition will jump at a chance to make history, it will be African-Americans (though polling puts Clinton ahead of Obama among black voters). Being easily the most solidly Democratic voters since the New Deal, they will be more than happy to support the candidacy of one of their own in the Democratic ranks.
As for Hispanic voters and the Richardson candidacy, there have been recent polls, which suggest a slight lean Democratic (except among Cuban expatriates). Rove tried very hard to include Hispanics in Bush’s governing coalition but the nativist tendencies of the Republican Party prior to the election made that difficult.
Will women voters carry Hillary into the White House? My guess is that women voters, when confronted with a historic opportunity will judge a female candidate in the same way that they judge a male candidate. Women as solidly Democratic voters may be overblown – there has been no change in support among women since the election of FDR. Rather, the discrepancy is among men who abandoned the Democratic Party in droves following the New Deal.
If any Democratic coalition will jump at a chance to make history, it will be African-Americans (though polling puts Clinton ahead of Obama among black voters). Being easily the most solidly Democratic voters since the New Deal, they will be more than happy to support the candidacy of one of their own in the Democratic ranks.
As for Hispanic voters and the Richardson candidacy, there have been recent polls, which suggest a slight lean Democratic (except among Cuban expatriates). Rove tried very hard to include Hispanics in Bush’s governing coalition but the nativist tendencies of the Republican Party prior to the election made that difficult.
