The gap has been attributed to various causes, including a shifting of loyalty among men to the Republican Party and generally higher support for liberal positions among women.
There was little evidence of a difference in male and female vote choice in the post-Watergate 1976 election between Gerald Ford and Jimmy Carter.
These predictions were realized when the final vote tallies revealed was an 8 percentage point gap in women's support for Carter over Reagan.
[5] Gender gaps in presidential elections usually average about 8 percentage points, though they may vary with the candidates, platforms, and salient issues in each contest.
The development of a gender gap in congressional and gubernatorial elections lagged behind its presidential counterpart, though by the mid-1990s, its magnitude reached relatively similar proportions, averaging approximately 9 percentage points.
These traits, it was believed, made women more conservative than men, and less likely to identify with President Franklin Roosevelt's Democratic New Deal coalition.
Researchers hypothesized that these changes may have been the result of an increasing emphasis on women's issues such as the Equal Rights Amendment and abortion.
[12] In particular, scholars have found that women are more likely to support a larger national government, increased gun control regulations, the legalization of same-sex marriage, and pro-choice positions on abortion.
[8] The significance of the gender gap in American politics is magnified because women generally turn out to vote at higher rates than men.
[15] In addition, due to their longer life expectancy, women also comprise a larger percentage of registered voters than men.