In the presidential election, the issue of the gender gap was raised, referring to a purported imbalance in the degree to which women supported the Republican Party. In this view, Bob Dole had a majority of the male vote while Bill Clinton had a much large majority of the female vote. The gender gap is supposedly something that has developed because the Democrats address and support women's issues, notably abortion rights, while the Republicans either ignore women or undercut certain "female" rights. Politicians have to pay attention to the possibility that there is a gender gap. If there is such a thing, those running for office have to consider whether they are dealing with issues of interest to women in a way that will attract those women as voters. At the same time, there is a danger that a candidate can mistake other differences for gender differences or can move too far against the broader interests of his or her party to appeal to women, thus losing the male vote already solidified. The first question is whether there is a gender gap, and logically if there is a gender gap, then candidates have to take it into account.
The gender gap itself has become a political issue, with one side seeing evidence of a gender gap and the importance attached to it as proof that women are becoming vitally important in elections, while others see the idea of the gender gap itself as a political construct invented by feminists to promote an agenda. Carol M. Mueller offers the first view by noting how 8 percent fewer women than men voted for Ronald Reagan in 1988, which was historically unprecedented: "For the first time since winning the suffrage in 1920, a higher proportion of women voted than did men" (Mueller 16). Over the rest of the decade, the issue of the gender gap became a subject for debate. Mueller believes there are clear reasons why this gap came into being:
The gender gap that emerged in the 1980 presidential electio...