Soccer Moms with Uzis

This may be the biggest sea change from this month's election: Women aren't necessarily utterly reliable Democrat voters.

As noted in Washington Post article by Tom Edsall, women's attitudes changed drastically after September 11:

The post-9/11 climate has helped the GOP win support from women, especially married women with children. While under normal circumstances women tend to be more averse to national defense spending and military action than men, the attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon and the continuing threat of domestic terrorism have changed women's attitudes.

Andrew Kohut, head of the Pew Research Center, found a dramatic shift in women's views about the creation of a national missile defense system. Just before the attacks, his polling showed that 29 percent of women and 42 percent of men agreed that "we need a national missile defense system right now." In October, after the attacks, support among men grew only slightly, to 47 percent, while among women the percentage soared to 51 percent, with 59 percent of women with children backing immediate creation of such a system...

All of these findings point to the increased receptivity of women to the generally more aggressive and tougher stands of Republicans on issues of military preparedness and dealing with foreign adversaries. These shifts may be temporary, a product of the terrorist threat. But while a war with Iraq might come and go, no one knows how long the threat of terrorist attack will continue. There is no reason to believe that this aspect of the political environment will change in the near future.

The cynic could say that women vote with whatever's driving them at the moment.

I wonder, in all honesty, what this says about the differences betwen the genders. White middle class males are the GOP's strongest consituency, minorities are the bedrock of the Democrats - white women seem to be the wild card, switching pretty wildly if the last three elections are any indication.

Via Instapundit.

Posted by Mitch at November 29, 2002 10:20 PM