Customer Reviews

Voting the Gender Gap

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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.