ABSTRACT
This chapter analyzes the gender gap in the 2012 presidential election. It begins by providing a narrative of the manner in which female voters and gender were relevant in the presidential primaries, high-profile congressional races, and the general election. The chapter then examines the way that these gender dynamics converged and contributed to the gender gap in the 2012 election. And also conclude the chapter by focusing on the 2016 election and speculating about the gender gap's future. Importantly, for the purposes of understanding the gender gap, men identified jobs as the number one issue; abortion did not even make it into top five. The unprecedented attention devoted to the issues of rape and abortion in 2012, therefore, have elevated the issue, especially for women, and reinforced the gender gap in candidate preference. The gender gap is often measured in two ways. Feminism and women's autonomy serve as the third common component of most analyses of the gender gap.
