The 2012 presidential election was suppose to be focused on the economy, however anyone that has surveyed the political landscape over the past several months knows that issues seem to shift with every political gaffe that is uttered. An issue that seems to be brought into the spotlight again and again are issues concerning women. Whether it was the “controversial” coverage of women’s yearly check-ups to no co-pays to birth control provided by the Affordable Care Act. Or Senatorial candidate Akin speaking incorrectly about women not getting pregnant from “legitimate rape”, women and their bodies have somehow managed to kick the economy out of the spotlight again and again this election season. While both parties have been heavily courting the “woman Vote”Democrats have had a handed advantage with the female demographic. But if you look back through history even with all of the media attention directed at women’s issues, it seems that women were likely to vote Democratic anyway.
In the latest poll findings show Obama has a solid lead over Romney when it comes to the female voting bloc he leads by around 10 points in most polls. But these findings aren’t new and aren’t limited to the 2012 presidential election. In the 2010 elections Republicans swept the House elections but when looking to the breakdown of voters these new congressmen did 7pts worse amongst women voters, and many worse than that. Much of the “gender-gap” has been a naturally occurring part of politics for some time. George W. Bush only took 43% of the Woman vote in 2000, the election that was notable in the fact that he lost the popular vote while securing necessary electoral votes to win the presidency.
When looking at the past several elections conclusions tend to point toward woman tending to vote democratic while men lean more right. Republicans can make up for this gap by winning the male vote by a larger margin, but this may prove difficult as women tend to vote in higher numbers. With the election only 74 days away Democrats are now simply adding more fuel to the fire to appeal to women voters. The Democratic National Convention will feature an entire female line up during one of the convention days enlisting influential women both in and out of politics. So while it appears that the GOP is struggling after the Akin comments the gender-gap as of now is nothing out of the ordinary.
