Abstract
Voting studies have documented that white collar workers tend to vote for conservative parties and blue collar workers for parties that advance working class interests. In the United States during the era (1980–1992) of Republican Presidents Reagan and Bush, women who worked in white collar jobs tended to vote for the Democratic party and men for the more conservative Republican party. This shift created the paradox of gender voting, which this article explains. The effect of gender on vote is small but attains statistical significance due to the suppressor effect of occupation. Two interpretations of the gender effect are tested: thematerialist holds that women's occupation and class identification affect this gap; thepost-materialist suggests that affluence is pivotal. The materialist interpretation fits the data from the survey of the national election of 1984 — the middle-most election of the three won by the Republicans— but the post-materialist interpretation may explain the vote of the very affluent.
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To Morris Rosenberg and Roberta Simmons, fine sociologists who clarified the suppressor effect and causes of self-esteem.
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Smith, R.B. The paradox of gender voting: An exploratory analysis. Qual Quant 27, 271–289 (1993). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF01097153
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF01097153
Keywords
- United States
- Suppressor Effect
- Exploratory Analysis
- Gender Effect
- Democratic Party