Voting the Gender Gap [Paperback]

Lois Duke Whitaker (Editor)

Book Description

Publication Date: March 6, 2008

This book concentrates on the gender gap in voting--the difference in the proportion of women and men voting for the same candidate. Evident in every presidential election since 1980, this polling phenomenon reached a high of 11 percentage points in the 1996 election. The contributors discuss the history, complexity, and ways of analyzing the gender gap; the gender gap in relation to partisanship; motherhood, ethnicity, and the impact of parental status on the gender gap; and the gender gap in races involving female candidates. Voting the Gender Gap analyzes trends in voting while probing how women's political empowerment and gender affect American politics and the electoral process.

Contributors are Susan J. Carroll, Erin Cassese, Cal Clark, Janet M. Clark, M. Margaret Conway, Kathleen A. Dolan, Laurel Elder, Kathleen A. Frankovic, Steven Greene, Leonie Huddy, Mary-Kate Lizotte, Barbara Norrander, Margie Omero, and Lois Duke Whitaker.

Editorial Reviews

Review

"Complete with insightful analysis and interesting conclusions, this book examines an important and much-speculated-on topic from a number of perspectives. The chapters report on original data analysis and examine factors and aspects of the gender gap that have not been examined elsewhere."--Christina Wolbrecht, author of The Politics of Women's Rights: Parties, Positions, and Change

Book Description

This book concentrates on the gender gap in voting--the difference in the proportion of women and men voting for the same candidate. Evident in every presidential election since 1980, this polling phenomenon reached a high of 11 percentage points in the 1996 election. The contributors discuss the history, complexity, and ways of analyzing the gender gap; the gender gap in relation to partisanship; motherhood, ethnicity, and the impact of parental status on the gender gap; and the gender gap in races involving female candidates. Voting the Gender Gap analyzes trends in voting while probing how women's political empowerment and gender affect American politics and the electoral process.

Contributors are Susan J. Carroll, Erin Cassese, Cal Clark, Janet M. Clark, M. Margaret Conway, Kathleen A. Dolan, Laurel Elder, Kathleen A. Frankovic, Steven Greene, Leonie Huddy, Mary-Kate Lizotte, Barbara Norrander, Margie Omero, and Lois Duke Whitaker.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 232 pages
• Publisher: University of Illinois Press (March 6, 2008)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0252075250
• ISBN-13: 978-0252075254
• Product Dimensions: 9 x 6.1 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 13.4 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,206,254 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

3.0 out of 5 stars Into the Gap (*channeling the Thompson Twins*), June 2, 2009

By 

Jeffery Mingo (Homewood, IL USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Voting the Gender Gap (Paperback)

Wait! The gender gap in voting hasn't been around forever!? I would have thought it was there since women got the right to vote in 1920. However, this book spells out that it's novel. In fact, in the past, women would have been more likely to vote red, instead of blue.
This anthology had a nice selection of chapters and really spelled out a topic that probably gets defined and abandoned quite quickly. I'm glad that political science and women's studies majors can use this as a tool.
Still, this book was heavy on the statistics and that's a double-edge sword. On the one hand, this wasn't as opinionated and unprovable as some bell hooks or even Saint Audre. The statistics back up any analysis offered or hypothesized. However, sometimes one boring statistics gab after another just deadens this lively subject.
The chapters too were surprising. An early chapter on how the gender of a poll taker affects answers seemed like it would be boring, but turned out to be the opposite. The chapter to which I looked most forward, race and the gender gap, was slow and quite disappointing. Perhaps it was in the parent chapter, but I thought there should have been a chapter comparing single female voters with married counterparts.
Again, I am glad this book was compiled. Still, I must admit that my interest waned rather quickly.