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Saturday, October 10, 2009

Repeal Women's Right To Vote?

Digital Journal:
Women’s suffrage, according to British-American John Derbyshire and Ann Coulter, U.S. conservative pundit, has caused so many problems America would be better off if it hadn’t happened. So should the women’s vote be repealed?

Women were given the right to vote following the passage of the 19th amendment on August 16, 1920. Although initially those against women’s vote were concerned there might be a gender gap with voting, history shows this did not initially materialize, as women tended to vote Republican and more conservative than men until 1980. It was after that there began to be a slight difference between men and women in voting. This occurred during the Reagan – Carter election where women gave Carter 47% of their vote and 45% to Reagan.

What has been more remarkable is that women vote in greater numbers than men, which is the reason political parties look to the women’s vote in political matters since they have constituted approximately 52% of the vote since 1980. Where the difference in gender voting has been more pronounced is between stay-at-home mothers versus stay-at-home fathers where mothers vote more liberally on social issues than men according to a study reported in mid-September 2009. It has also been found that since 1980 the definition of “family” and therefore “family values” has become more value and therefore the play to “family values” has had varying effects depending upon how those values have been described.

So as women have expanded political power following the right to vote, how they vote has differed throughout history and according to present accounts can’t be predicted unless they happen to have children at home. This information provokes the question once again: Should women retain the right to vote if it is principally young mothers where the gender gap in voting is shown?

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