Feminist author Jill Filipovic is worried about the growing political divide between the sexes.
Noting that a recent Gallup poll found a 30-point difference between the percentage of young women who self-identify as Democratic and the percentage of men the same age who do the same, Filipovic wrote, “An ideological gap this wide, drawn along the lines of gender, does not portend long-term national stability.”
“This growing gender chasm,” Filipovic continued, “could leave all of us in a less secure, less stable, and less connected nation.”
I totally agree.
Unfortunately, Filipovic doesn’t offer much of a road map of how to avoid that fate.
She does push the Democratic Party, a party already overwhelmingly supported by women, to do even more for women, including offering “basic support in preventing unwanted pregnancies,” “sustaining the ones they do want,” and “supporting the children that result.” “Many progressive politicians have pushed for things including paid family leave and universal child care,” she noted. But none of this explains why any man should ever vote for the Democratic Party.
As I’ve noted before, the message from feminist Democrats like Filipovic to men is basically this: You are, at best, worthless. Democratic Party programs have empowered women to procreate without you entirely. In fact, most likely, you are a #MeToo pervert who needs to be punished, without due process, by a college inquisition board. If you want, you can be a silent ally for women’s causes, but please don’t ever talk — we’ve heard enough from the patriarchy already.
Is it any wonder men are fleeing the Democratic Party in droves?
But Filipovic doesn’t seem to care. She seems to think Democrats can win with the votes of women alone. “After all, women power American elections,” she wrote. “We vote more often than men and volunteer on campaigns and get-out-the-vote efforts in huge numbers. Women also tend to have more friends and a wider web of social connections than men do, offering more opportunities for political persuasion. Women have for decades now outnumbered men on college campuses, and college graduates are both more likely to vote and more likely to vote for Democrats specifically. Men without a college degree are some of the lowest-turnout voters in the country. Highly educated women — a group the GOP seems almost intent on alienating — are among the highest.”
This is all true. And Filipovic then adds another wrinkle: “One thing that does seem to get men to the ballot box: being married. Among adult American men, husbands are the most likely voters; single men are the least likely.”
This is also true. Being married does make men more likely to vote. But being married also has a big effect on women. Turns out it makes them more likely to vote Republican. Just look at this chart of the exit polls from the 2022 midterm elections:
Married women actually vote Republican by a 14-point margin. Married and single men also vote Republican. It is only the Democratic Party’s overwhelming strength with single women that keeps them afloat.
What is it about marriage that makes women less likely to vote for the Democratic Party?
According to one recent paper, single women, especially white single women, are more likely to identify with other women generally. Unmarried women feel that if women in general are doing well, then they are doing well themselves. The authors called this mindset a “gender-linked fate.”
Married women, on the other hand, are more likely to identify with the needs of their husbands and children. They are more likely to share income and resources with their husbands and are therefore more concerned with the very real relationships they have with their family instead of some imagined link with other single women.
If we want to prevent a future where the nation is divided along gender lines, both parties should pursue an agenda that makes it easier for young men and women to get and stay married. This means less money for four-year colleges dominated by women and more money for technical and apprenticeship programs. It means reforming burdensome regulations such as the National Environmental Policy Act so that it is easier to build new housing, thus lowering housing prices. But most importantly, it means reforming the welfare state to eliminate marriage penalties.
CLICK HERE TO READ MORE FROM THE WASHINGTON EXAMINER
Married men and women are both happier and more successful than their unmarried counterparts. Children from married homes are more likely to graduate from high school, be employed, and stay out of jail than children from unmarried households. Communities with more married fathers have higher rates of social mobility than neighborhoods dominated by single-parent households.
Everything is better when men and women are more likely to get and stay married. That should be the driving goal of both parties.