Tuesday, October 28, 2008

Do women want to elect a female president?

Do women base their support for a candidate on the type of gender?  Will the female vote swing towards senator Clinton over Obama?  Obviously not since the democratic election is over and Senator Obama won.  However my question is that do you think the majority of the women vote would sway towards the women candidate?  I’m pretty sure there are a lot of men in the United States that would sway there vote away from a female candidate because they are female.  I have personally heard people say things during this years election about how America isn’t ready to have a women be president.  There are many old fashioned people in this country that are firm believers that women have no place in office and they should leave the “real work” for the men to take care of.  Coincidently these old fashioned minds happen to make up one of the larger age group of voters in our country.  Do you think the women in this age group would then support a female candidate because she is female or side on her husband’s side of the issue?  According to various Pollsters mentioned in Aida F. Akl’s article Women Influence U.S. Politics, women do not show any difference in there vote based on whether the candidate is male or female.  Victoria Budson, Executive director of the Women and Public Policy Program at Harvard University claims that women voters are more tuned into the issues that are meaningful to their lives rather than which candidate will push for women’s rights more or which gender each candidate is.  I personally feel that a person should vote for whom will best benefit there lives, however wouldn’t supporting a woman candidate help every other woman in America’s cause.  It would defiantly make sense if the majority of women votes when to senator Clinton in her push for the presidency.  I would feel that during the women’s rights movement in the 70’s a firm majority of registered female voters would have voted for senator Clinton just because she was a female and would have brought more power and voice to women across the country.  Does this mean women are happy with the rights, privilege, and equality standards they have now?  Are they still out to gain complete equality in all acts of life?    

Women Influence U.S. Politics

By: Aida F. Akl’s

http://www.voanews.com/english/archive/2008-01/2008-01-15-voa6.cfm

2 comments:

Rachel said...

I found this very interesting and it sort of ties into what I have been posting on my blog. In my research on Sarah Palin and how women feel she would be as a leader, I found something similar to what your last post concluded. Most women pay more attention to the issues at hand rather than the gender of the candidate. Interesting topic!

Liz said...

This is a very interesting topic because it is something that many people speculate about. I believe that women choose based on the beliefs and issues of the candidates versus purely gender. Personally, I look at gender but way more importantly is the actual substance of the issues and actions the individual candidates are going to take for our country. I would love to see more information and statistics about this topic, nice job Matt!