Sex and the Caucus Participant: The Gender Gap and Presidential Nominations

Most analysis of the gender gap has focused on the mass electorate. But over the past 20 years, women have also come to play a much more important role in presidential nominations in both parties. Looking at caucus participants across parties, we find sex differences greater than those discovered at the mass level. Female caucus participants are significantly more liberal than males. Within each party sex differences are strong for women's issues and foreign policy issues; and for both sets of issues the differences are greater within the Republican party. Sex differences hold up with controls for demographics as well. The strong findings on sex differences in attitudes fail to translate into sex differences in candidate choice. Confronted with a very complicated political environment, both males and females choose candidates on largely nonideological bases.