Introduction
Political pundits and campaign commentators now regularly discuss the existence of a
“gender gap” within U.S. politics, at least with regard to presidential voting. This
acknowledgement of gender differences in terms of political attitudes and behavior is a fairly
recent phenomenon. Since the 1980s, scholars have begun looking more systematically at these
kinds of differences between men and women. They have found differences between men and
women in terms of support for social programs and concerns about national security (Shapiro
and Mahajan 1986; Wilcox, Ferrara and Allsop 1993). In terms of partisanship, Kaufmann and
Petrocik (1999) found the gender gap in party identification is due to increases in Republican
Party affiliation among men. Schlozman and colleagues (1995) find gender differences in terms
of activism, particularly with regard to abortion issues, but limited differences in public opinion.
Finally, Chaney, Alvarez and Nagler (1998) examined the gender gap in presidential voting from
1980-1992. They found women’s votes are driven more by national economic concerns and that
men place more emphasis on pocketbook issues.
Yet, it is as yet unclear whether or not these general findings apply to gender differences
within racial and ethnic groups. Intersections theorists would lead us to expect that the effects of
gender as a sociological phenomenon would vary both within and among racial and ethnic
groups (Crenshaw 1991, hooks 1984, Cohen 1999). But, largely due to small sample sizes, few
studies have examined gender differences within the context of ethnic and racial groups.
Dawson (1994) and Tate (1993) had conflicting results in terms of whether there are differences
between African American women and men in terms of party identification, while Mangum
(2004) does find differences, but of a very small magnitude.
With regard to the Latino community, specifically, the earliest study to note gender
differences in Latina/o partisan attitudes was conducted by Brischetto and de la Garza in 1983
2
Convention