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Ask Virginia voter Mary Hayes why Joe Biden defeated Donald Trump, and she or he doesn’t hesitate.
Women received this election! says Hayes, 56, a mom of three and Biden supporter from Leesburg, Virginia. In explicit, she credit two classes of voters that she herself is a part of: Black girls and suburban girls. Trump had begged the latter group a few of whom hed alienated by referring to them as housewives” to please, please like him. But that plea rang hole, she says.
We confirmed America that suburban girls are numerous, and are a good looking assortment of ethnicity, race, marital standing, occupations and plenty of different classes,” Hayes says. Suburban girls mobilized, decided to take away Trump from workplace.” And, she says, they succeeded.
From almost the second Trump took the presidential oath, it was girls who had been the face of the resistance marching in monumental numbers of their pussy hats, and fueling Democratic positive aspects within the 2018 midterm elections.
So in 2020, the 12 months girls celebrated the centennial of the 19th Amendment guaranteeing their proper to vote, many had anticipated and a few polls advised a dramatic repudiation of Trump with a widened gender hole. The outcomes had been a bit extra sophisticated.
Hayes is right that girls had been essential to Bidens victory merely acknowledged, if solely males had voted, Trump would have received. Black girls and suburban girls, specifically, proved to be pillars of Biden’s coalition. But the election additionally delivered a reminder of Republicans’ power with different teams of girls.
Trump had a modest benefit amongst white girls, and a a lot wider share of white girls with out faculty levels, based on AP VoteCast, a survey of greater than 110,000 voters. And regardless of expectations that the much-analyzed gender hole would develop, it remained basically the identical from earlier elections, together with 2016.
In Congress, the large information was vital positive aspects for Republican girls, and total a document variety of girls will serve within the 117th Congress not less than 141, together with 105 Democrats and 36 Republicans, based on present numbers from the Center for American Women in Politics at Rutgers University.
Overall, the outcomes are a transferring goal, says Debbie Walsh, director of the middle. But it was in sum “a good year, she says, both for the election of women candidates on both sides, and for the participation of women voters. And of course, a huge glass ceiling was shattered with the election of the first female vice president, Kamala Harris.
AP VoteCast showed a 9 percentage point difference between men and women in support for Biden and Harris: 55% of women and 46% of men. That was essentially unchanged from the 2018 midterms, when VoteCast found a 10-point gender gap, with 58% of women and 48% of men backing Democrats in congressional races.
Contrary to some expectations, this was a very average gender gap, says Susan J. Carroll, professor of political science and womens and gender studies at Rutgers.
The gender gap in support for Democratic candidates has averaged about 8 percentage points in the last 10 presidential elections, according to data from the American National Election Studies.
So for anyone whod been looking for a wave election on either side, there was barely a ripple, Carroll says. Still, Republican women in Congress, who have long lagged behind their Democratic counterparts, made notable gains: At minimum, a record 36 GOP women will serve in Congress next year, and they’ve already more than doubled their representation in the House.
Among newly elected GOP women who flipped seats: Stephanie Bice in Oklahoma, Michelle Fischbach in Minnesota, Yvette Herrell in New Mexico, Ashley Hinson in Iowa, Young Kim in California, Nancy Mace in South Carolina, Nicole Malliotakis in New York, Maria Elvira Salazar in Florida, Michelle Steel in California.
Thats been the story of this cycle, says Walsh of Republican women. They made up all the ground they lost in 2018. Yet there remains a sizable gap with their Democratic colleagues; at least 89 Democratic women will be serving in the House.
Feminist leader Eleanor Smeal says thats an important gain, even though she herself doesnt agree with the GOP platform. If were going to get to half of Congress, were going to have to have more Republicans as well as more Democrats, says Smeal, president of the Feminist Majority.
Smeal adds that the gender gap, while perhaps smaller than shed hoped, was still crucial in the presidential race. It helped Biden and Harris carry the suburbs, she says, noting in particular the suburbs of Philadelphia and Pittsburgh in the crucial state of Pennsylvania, which Biden won.
VoteCast showed that Trump narrowly beat Biden among white women, largely on the strength of support in rural areas and small towns. But Biden dominated with women in the suburbs, winning 59% to Trumps 40% of a group that makes up around a quarter of the electorate nationwide. Biden won overwhelmingly among Black women, 93% to Trumps 6%, according to VoteCast.
Trump won handily among white women without college degrees 60% to 39% while Biden won white women with college degrees by roughly the same margin.
The results show yet again that despite a steady overall gender gap, there are different groups of women that made a difference for each camp, Walsh says.
Hayes is one of the suburban women who mobilized early, dismayed at what she called the presidents dog whistles in trying to stoke fears among suburban women that low-income housing would invite crime and ruin their neighborhoods. She formed a Facebook group, The Real Suburban Housewives for Biden/Harris, which drew over 5,000 members, including a few brave men.
Some (of us) are housewives, some are career women, some are mothers and some are not, Hayes says. Suburban women are thinkers, business owners, and we fight for our families. America should work together like suburban women maybe they could get something done in the government.
A key element of the gender gap this year, some advocates have noted, is not about women but men: Men appeared to be somewhat more likely to back Biden in this election than they were to back Hillary Clinton in 2016. VoteCast shows 46% of men supported Biden. In 2016, 41% supported Clinton, according to a Pew Research Center analysis.
That, say advocates like Smeal, may be at least in part due to discomfort among some men or misogynistic attitudes about Clinton.
Theres no question that in 2016 there had been a massive negative campaign against Hillary Clinton, and some of that was against her sex, Smeal says. There were so many sexist things thrown at her and it was for a long period of time.
There was obviously one major gender barrier broken this election the ascension of a woman to the second highest office in the land.
It is just spectacular that you have not only women running for these high offices but you now have the first one to win, and a Black Asian woman to boot,” Smeal says. “As she mentioned, she may be the primary girl, however she wont be the final.
Says Hayes: It will really feel good to have somebody within the White House with shared experiences. She provides all girls and little ladies hope that in a male-dominated authorities, no degree is off limits.
Associated Press author Hannah Fingerhut in Washington contributed to this report.
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