When we think of women’s voting history, we tend to align our thoughts with huge moments in women’s rights history that affected the way women went to the polls.
Women were granted the right to vote in 1920. They helped in the war effort during the Second World War, and waited for the husbands and sons they sent off to come home from Vietnam. Feminists marched in the 1970s on the 50th anniversary of being granted suffrage, and many rejoiced at the 1973 announcement of the Roe v. Wade decision. But in the '80s, President Reagan vowed to overturn that decision, and voting patterns shifted further.
Today women turn out to vote in higher percentages than men, and they also vote disproportionately for the Democratic ticket.
But what if it wasn't women who changed the way they went to the polls, but men? This election may in fact mark the first time that women’s issues sway the average American voter in who she chooses for president.
Virginia Saprio is Boston University’s dean of arts and science and a former professor in political science and women’s studies at the University of Wisconsin — Madison.
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Comments [6]
I would like to know why it is okay to murder a baby if it was conceived during a rape. Anyone who is for an abortion "rape exception" is a hypocrite.
Ed is right. Public radio -- most particularly The Takeaway -- largely ignored the idiotically offensive race-baiting of Joe Biden.
And yet you have parlayed the Akin idiocy into days of coverage; all one-sided, of course.
When this happens in the space of just a few days, with your own searcahble webpage as a record, it is pretty obvious.
When "NPR" proclaims its fairness on political issues, I look at public radio outside of the strict purview of the network, just like this one, and it is obvious why conservtives and Republicans have every right to view public radio as nothing less than a state-supported War on Republicans.
Thank you for an insightful and informative interview. This was probably the most thoughtful interview I have heard in a while. Dean Sapiro captures the nuances of women's voting behavior and expresses her arguments in a succinct manner.
Still talking about Akins. But quickly forgot Vice-President Biden's gaffs.
Of course, I meant the Catholic Church's teachings in regard to these 'women's' issues - they are all our issues. (And the Catholic sisters' leadership community is confusing people by not teaching what the Church teaches.)
It's remarkable that the Catholic Church - in health care and other places - is at the center of the political debate in this election. One has to learn some Catholic theology to understand the issues.
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