Voting Patterns of American Women

¶ … United States has had a varied history when it comes to voting. Blacks endured several trials and tribulations to gain the right to vote. Women also went through hurdles only gaining the right to vote in the early twentieth century. All of this lends to what the present is today, a nation that encompasses all of the past struggles into the next Presidential election. And with the election less than a year away, some questions may be asked. For example what affects the voting patterns of American women? Is social class a determiner for how and/or when a woman votes? How does social conflict theory contribute to explaining such behaviors?

While religion appears to play a role in voting behavior among Americans and other nationalities, class may also be a determiner for how Americans vote. In regards to American women, wealthy women may see things differently versus their poor counterparts. Republicans for example, tend to comprise of wealthy voters with some favoring the Republican Party purely for the stance they have on the economy. Those that earn less favor Democratic and vote Democratic. Even when examining wealthy Democrats, their support for the Democratic Party is much weaker than a low-income Democrat's (Lang, 2016).

Women in America have a tendency overall, to support political parties that offer more in the way of government programs that support social services, child care, and children. However when social class if factored in, protection of assets and income supersede some of these base wishes. Republicans while focused on reform, do not provide the framework for social redistribution like the Democratic Party does. Women in support of social redistribution often earn less marking a difference and link between social class and American women voting patterns. "Religious identity matters in politics," conclude the researchers, "but its effect is contingent on the individual's social location." (Lang, 2016).

Examining voting behaviors of American women through the lens of social conflict theory provides a theoretical proposition that conflict is possible and consensus is possible. How that plays into identifying voting patterns must first begin with what social conflict theory is. Social conflict theory is a Marxist-based social theory that argues groups and individuals in society have varying quantities of non-material and material resources, for example, the poor versus the wealthy. Additionally, the groups with more power utilize that power to further exploit the less powerful groups (Eagly, Baron, Hamilton & Kelman, 2004, p. 34). Petranka wrote an article titled "A Conflict Theory of Voting" that examines the behavioral psychology of voting and found that "voters tend to be poorly informed, highly responsive to candidate personality, and follow a 'fast and frugal' heuristic" (Petranka, 2010, p. 1). Essentially the article suggests politicians behave in a way that appeals to a desired voter demographic.

What this means is a political candidate for example, like John McCain, would try to appeal to the working class by presenting the idea of "Joe the Plumber." Joe the Plumber was an everyman by the name of Samuel Joseph Wurzelbcher who the Republican Party saw during the Obama and McCain campaigns as a way to sway the working class to vote for McCain and support the Republican Party. The same tactic was used when McCain chose a female governor by the name of Sarah Palin to sway the female voters away from the Democratic Party and Barack Obama by demonstrating the Republicans were capable of great change as the Democratic Party was.

Whether or not those actions altered the voting patterns of American women, statistics share that the voting patterns were close for men but markedly different for women with women choosing Obama over McCain. "Overall, women strongly supported Senator Obama over Senator McCain (56% for Obama, 43% for McCain). Men split their votes about evenly between the two presidential candidates, with 49% for Obama and 48% for McCain" (Crouse, 2008). Of those women that supported Obama, many come from working class backgrounds showing that class has a way of determining voter turnout. Another reason why class may be part of the influences that affect voter turnout, especially in women, is because of the need for government support that men may not require. As earlier mentioned, women often need child care assistance among other things.