Comments on: Palin, Women and the Future of the Republican Party http://sites.middlebury.edu/presidentialpower/2008/11/22/palin-women-and-the-future-of-the-republican-party/ A NonPartisan Analysis of Presidential Politics Wed, 21 Nov 2012 15:45:52 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.5.1 By: Jeff 2010.5 http://sites.middlebury.edu/presidentialpower/2008/11/22/palin-women-and-the-future-of-the-republican-party/comment-page-1/#comment-1240 Jeff 2010.5 Sun, 23 Nov 2008 23:38:57 +0000 http://sites.middlebury.edu/presidentialpower/?p=87#comment-1240 “This was not an election that turned on … currency based on gold or silver.”

I think a certain Texas representative missed a memo.

]]> By: Jason Mittell http://sites.middlebury.edu/presidentialpower/2008/11/22/palin-women-and-the-future-of-the-republican-party/comment-page-1/#comment-1224 Jason Mittell Sat, 22 Nov 2008 22:06:16 +0000 http://sites.middlebury.edu/presidentialpower/?p=87#comment-1224 Matt – your last paragraph is the key to me, as it seems that appealing to voters by policy position is a lot more effective than simply matching gender. This seems like a researchable question at the governor/senate level where there’s a lot more data – how has a candidate’s gender correlated with voter demographics? Are female candidates innately more likely to appeal to women more than male candidates with similar policy positions? If we assume that the D/R gender gap (when dealing with male candidates) is based primarily on the policy issues you mention, we should be able to see how much variance occurs when one of the candidates is female. Do you have any references on this?

My gut says that the policy issues hold significantly more sway than the candidate’s gender, and there are a good proportion of women who will backlash against a female candidate whom they disagree with or don’t respect for fear of having a “symbolic” candidacy tainted. And to win the mother vote, playing up “hockey mom” creds seems far less successful than catering to the key issues that moms care about: education, child care, health care, and equitable labor policies.

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