Andrew Kohut, president of the Pew Research Center, published this blog entry tonight that examines the male vote behavior related to Democratic presidential candidates and U.S Senators, Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama.
The gist of his findings:
…a strong plurality of men [back] Obama. According to the Edison/Mitofsky entrance polls in Iowa, 35 percent of male caucus-goers supported Senator Obama, compared with 23 percent who backed Senator Clinton. In the New Hampshire primary, Senator Obama carried the male vote by a similarly large 40 percent to 29 percent margin, despite his narrow defeat there.
What’s going on here? Does Senator Clinton have a problem with male voters or does Senator Obama simply appeal more to men? A look at the exit polls and latest national polls suggests that the answer is a little bit of both, but the anti-Clinton sentiment is a somewhat larger factor among men. In particular, Hillary Clinton seems to turn off younger and moderate to conservative male Democrats. As many as one-in-five of them say there is no way they will support the former first lady for the nomination.
But this sentiment aside, Senator Obama has some qualities that strongly appeal to male Democrats. Indeed, men more so than women find him inspiring and trustworthy. The Illinois senator also draws much more support from men who are college graduates than from those with less education.
As a woman who has been following and writing about issues related to women in leadership, regardless of the sector, for a while now, I don’t find any of that surprising. And I find Kohut’s conclusion downright affirmation:
Finally, quite apart from Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton’s strengths and weaknesses among men and women, there is the-woman-for-president factor, which may be boosting Senator Clinton among women and not among men. An October Pew survey (pdf) found 47 percent of female Democratic voters saying it would be a good thing to elect a female president — among males only 31 percent expressed that view!
Why, though – why do you suppose men don’t think it would be a good thing to elect a female president? That question – why it would be a good thing or a bad thing to elect a female president – does not appear to be covered in last fall’s extensive Pew survey on the primary races in both parties, but isn’t it the question to which we really want the answer?