Past research has shown that unmarried women – defined as those over 18 who have never married or who are divorced – are more politically liberal. Now, a new study has looked more into why this might be the case.
The fact that married women are on the whole more likely to be conservative and/or Republican, while unmarried women are more liberal, is referred to as the “marriage gap”.
The new study, which will be presented at the 110th Annual Meeting of the American Sociological Association (ASA), has revealed findings that can in part be explained by another established political-science term: “Linked fate.”
The phrase has previously been used to understand why African Americans and Latinos are more likely than other underrepresented groups to vote en masse for candidates, parties, and policies that will benefit the majority of the group, even if not necessarily a lot of the individuals within it.
When it comes to the marriage gap, researchers found that unmarried women are more concerned about the status of women as a collective group, and more aware that an individual woman’s success depends on the success of women in general.
“Over 67 percent of never married women and 66 percent of divorced women perceive what happens to other women as having some or a lot to do with what happens in their own lives,” said Kelsy Kretschmer, a co-author of the study and an assistant professor of sociology at Oregon State University. “Only 56.5 percent of married women hold the same views.”
The sum is greater than its parts
Kretschmer explained that there are several issues that might not affect all or even most women, but unmarried women view as being essential in determining the direction and future success women everywhere.
“For a woman, when it comes to politics, having a high level of gender linked fate generally means she thinks in terms of what will benefit women as a group,” Kretschmer said. “This could encompass things such as wage equality, workplace protections for pregnancy and maternity leave, anti-domestic violence laws, and welfare expansion. Not every individual woman needs these things, but women who have a strong sense of gender linked fate will think in terms of how women as a group will benefit from them. These issues have been most championed in the United States by liberals, female representatives, and the Democratic Party.”
Kretschmer, along with co-authors Christopher Stout, an assistant professor of political science at Oregon State University, and Leah Ruppanner, an assistant professor in the School of Social and Political Science at the University of Melbourne, also found that women who never married put considerably more value on having females elected to political positions than married women did.
The study was based on data from the nationally representative 2010 American National Election Study (ANES), which asked a wide range of questions about political attitudes and behaviors.
Also examined were widowed women, who were interestingly much closer in their views to married women.
“Widowed women are frequently older and never ruptured their relationships with their husbands by divorcing them,” Kretschmer explained. “They may still be receiving their husbands’ pensions, social security, or health benefits. In other words, despite not having a husband, many widows are still engaged in the marriage institution in ways that make them more like married women than never married or divorced women.”
As fewer women marry and others spend longer periods of their life unmarried, the assumption must be that support for liberal viewpoints, and the Democrats, will grow.
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Feature Image: Thinkstock
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