***HOF thread*** Why do a large minority of women vote Republican?

[YoungDemCA]

This was something that I had posted a little while back in response to another post in HOF, but it didn't get a response. So I am making it an OP, because I think it's an interesting topic. While President Obama won 55 percent of women voters in 2012, Mitt Romney still won 44 percent of them - according to exit polls. This result and others demonstrate that women do not necessarily embrace liberalism or feminism, by any means.

In my experience, women who vote Republican tend to be older, married, highly religious (read: conservative Christian - especially "born-again" evangelical Protestants, conservative Catholics, and Mormons), and - and this is almost universal among both men and women who vote Republican - white.

They very often either grew up in an especially right-wing, patriarchal and culturally homogeneous environment, where in a household, the man was expected to be the breadwinner and the woman was expected to be the homemaker. Additionally, they typically aren't as well-educated or (for lack of a better word) "worldly" as liberal women. I have an aunt who never went to college (but went to beauty school! ), whose parents were right-wing Republican activists in Southern California and took her to Republican rallies when she was young. Fast-forward to adulthood, and my aunt married my uncle (who is also a Republican, albeit of the country-club/business variety); my uncle later became a top executive and partner in his company and when he helped sell his company...well, let's just say they are doing very well now. That's kind of an extreme example, but you get the idea.

So to sum up: A lot of it is internalized sexism and privilege in areas other than gender (race, class, etc.), IMHO. Add in religious fundamentalism to the mix, and you have yourself a lot of of very right-wing women.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/?com=view_post&forum=1255&pid=58547

I would just add that some women are just as narcissistic, selfish, and short-sighted in their perceptions of their self-interest - or indeed, the interests of society - as many men are. Who knew that women weren't a monolithic group?

Anyone else have any other theories, stories, or observations?

[Warpy]

1. Most of the GOP women I know married GOP men

and followed twoo wuv into voting the way the dolt of a man votes.

It doesn't last long, just until the bloom is off the rose.

I also know a few raging fools who do it out of spite because Hillary Clinton's loss drove them crazy in 2008.

[TheBlackAdder]

2. Rutgers Eagleton will have some data on that. In a Women In Politics course...

.

While most would think that women would vote for their equality, Phyllis Schlafly showed otherwise.

Religion, family, and community play a large role in their decision-making, like most males.


Gender seems to take a secondary seat.


.

[Starry Messenger]

3. Self-loathing.

[BooScout]

4. Interesting thread...

Almost every woman I know who votes GOP is white, heterosexual, married and religious.

I can't think of any single women I know who vote GOP. I know of no gay women who vote GOP. The republican voters I know overall seem to be white males, college educated and non-college, white women married to college educated or non-college males....many of the women stayed home for long periods of time during their lives and focused on raising their children, or if they held jobs it was usually part time work. Very few of them completed college or if they did, they were married soon out of college.

I'll be blunt, most women I know who vote republican do not seem to be as smart as the women I know who vote for Democrats. The small few who I know are smart seem to have religion play a big part in their lives. I also know several women who turned into republicans only after they married.

The biggest factor I can point to is they are married to white males and religous.

[Phentex]

6. It seems to be anecdotal...

I know women who vote Republican for a couple of reasons. One is religion. And the other is about money. Either they have stated openly that they think Democrats tax too much OR they think Republicans are perceived as having money and they want to identify with that. The less educated women who openly spout off anti-Obama slurs are the ones I think really even aren't registered to vote.

My neighbor claims to be a Republican and she's very Catholic and vocal about abortion. But she was so disgusted with Sarah Palin as a potential VP, I am convinced she voted for Obama by everything she said.

I have annoyed quite a few people by asking out loud HOW CAN ANY WOMAN VOTE FOR A REPUBLICAN????!!!!

[geek tragedy]

7. People largely get their political/ideological identity from their parents.

So, the same parents that raise Republican boys will generally raise Republican girls.

Of course, men and women grow up with different experiences and wind up viewing the world in a different way, so for a certain percentage that's enough to overcome the parental/upbringing influence.

[bettyellen]

8. it's indoctrination- same thought goes in as what sports team to support for many. People like to

be agreeable about shit, not cause waves.