Reagan and Women

Matched against Walter Mondale, Ronald Reagan’s standing with women is considerably better than the “gappers” would have you think. Much of the gender gap is due to the strength of Reagan’s male vote, which now puts him ahead of Mondale by some 12 points. Women currently favor Reagan 51 per cent to 47 per cent, with 2 per cent undecided. As the Democratic Convention gets under way, the differential will contract somewhat, but the White House is confident that come election time Mr. Reagan will be comfortably in front of Mr. Mondale with both male and female voters.

This is not to say that the gender gap is not real. It averages some 12 points, which break down this way: Three points out of the 12 are owing to black women, who go against the President 98 to 2 (black men: 88 to 12), and Jewish women, less than 10 per cent of whom support the President. Another three points are owing to Mr. Reagan’s perceived hawkishness and the perceived uncompassionateness of his Administration (he remaining safely a nice guy). Another three points can be traced to distortion, and the final three oscillate between Republicans and Democrats, currently pitching strongly toward the latter thanks to Mr. Reagan’s being much more Right than, say, Jerry Ford.

JM

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Matched against Walter Mondale, Ronald Reagan’s standing with women is considerably better than the “gappers” would have you think. Much of the gender gap is due to the strength of Reagan’s male vote, which now puts him ahead of Mondale by some 12 points. Women currently favor Reagan 51 per cent to 47 per cent, with 2 per cent undecided. As the Democratic Convention gets under way, the differential will contract somewhat, but the White House is confident that come election time Mr. Reagan will be comfortably in front of Mr. Mondale with both male and female voters.

This is not to say that the gender gap is not real. It averages some 12 points, which break down this way: Three points out of the 12 are owing to black women, who go against the President 98 to 2 (black men: 88 to 12), and Jewish women, less than 10 per cent of whom support the President. Another three points are owing to Mr. Reagan’s perceived hawkishness and the perceived uncompassionateness of his Administration (he remaining safely a nice guy). Another three points can be traced to distortion, and the final three oscillate between Republicans and Democrats, currently pitching strongly toward the latter thanks to Mr. Reagan’s being much more Right than, say, Jerry Ford.