Replication Data for: A Century of the American Woman Voter: Sex Gaps in Political Participation, Preferences, and Partisanship Since Women’s Enfranchisement

Principal Investigator(s): View help for Principal Investigator(s) Elizabeth Cascio, Dartmouth College; Na'ama Shenhav, Dartmouth College

Version: View help for Version V1

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Project Description

Summary: This year marks the centennial of the Nineteenth Amendment, which provided American women a constitutional guarantee to the franchise. We assemble data from a variety of sources to document and explore trends in women’s political participation, issue preferences, and partisanship since that time. We show that in the early years following enfranchisement, women voted at much lower rates than men and held distinct issue preferences, despite splitting their votes across parties similarly to men. But by the dawn of the 21st century, women not only voted more than men, but also voted differently, systematically favoring the Democratic party. We find that the rise in women’s relative voter turnout largely reflects cross-cohort changes in voter participation and coincided with increasing rates of high school completion. By contrast, women’s relative shift toward the Democratic party permeates all cohorts and appears to owe more to changes in how parties have defined themselves than to changes in issue preferences. The findings suggest that a confluence of factors have led to the unique place women currently occupy in the American electorate, one where they are arguably capable of exerting more political influence than ever before.

Scope of Project

Subject Terms: voting; voting rights; voting behavior; gender

JEL Classification:
      I00 Health, Education, and Welfare: General
      J16 Economics of Gender; Non-labor Discrimination
      K16 Election Law
      N32 Economic History: Labor and Consumers, Demography, Education, Health, Welfare, Income, Wealth, Religion, and Philanthropy: U.S.; Canada: 1913-

Geographic Coverage: United States (national, regional, and state)

Universe: United States voting-age population.

Data Type(s): administrative records data; aggregate data; observational data; survey data

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Published Versions

V1 [2020-05-04]

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DDI 2.5

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