ABSTRACT
This chapter focuses on the election of Bill Clinton and the role of gender in the 1992 presidential election. It suggests that Bill Clinton probably accomplished more in a few weeks on the issues than additional Democratic women in the House or Senate could have achieved had George Bush won reelection. The chapter shows that the presidential election of 1992 was characterized by significant gender differences in attitudes and voting behavior. The emergence of gender gap in the 1980s, political scientists paid little attention to the relationship between gender and political attitudes and behaviors. The gender gap in the presidential vote in 1980 was larger than in any presidential election before or after, and the 1980 election also marked a widening of differences in the partisanship of women and men. However, turnout rates for women have not declined as sharply as those for men.
