This post is one of a series of posts in observance of Women’s History Month.

There are many gaps in our politics. There are gaps on
many issues between black and white Americans, young and old, and rich and poor.
And there is a partisan chasm on many issues today. At one time, there was a
large gap between the attitudes of the generally more liberal Northeast and the
generally more conservative South. However, many of these regional distinctions
have disappeared, to be replaced by new cleavages among urban, suburban, and
rural residents. 

There are at least two major gaps in the polls that relate to women. Polls show both a gender gap and a marriage gap. The gender gap has received the lion’s share of media attention in recent years, but the marriage gap is usually larger. Both are patterned gaps, meaning that they occur within a group (there is a gap, for example, between married men and married women).

As a share of the electorate, married voters have been declining. In 2020, married people were 56 percent of all voters. Married voters tend to be more Republican than nonmarried voters, many of whom are young and more Democratic. (The “not married” category in the exit poll includes people who are single, widowed, and divorced.) In the 2020 election, 46 percent of married voters voted for Joe Biden, and 53 percent voted for Donald Trump. Among voters who are not married, 58 percent voted for Biden, and 40 percent voted for Trump. The gap was 27 points — four points larger than the 2020 gender gap.

The post Women making history: Gapology — gender and marriage gaps appeared first on American Enterprise Institute – AEI.