The Partisan Paradox: Religious Commitment and the Gender Gap in Party Identification

A large body of scholarly literature points to the growing influenceof religious devotion on U.S. partisanship. This article attemptsto reconcile the growing religious commitment cleavage in theAmerican party system with the commensurate growth in the gendergap. If women are, on average, more religiously devout thanmen, and if contemporary shifts in partisanship are disproportionatelyfounded on religious and cultural cleavages, then why are womenmore likely to identify with the Democratic Party? I pose threepossible explanations for this apparent paradox: (1) that theinfluence of religion is only considerable among the most committed;(2) that men and women politicize their religious beliefs indifferent ways; and (3) that gender differences in opinion onnonreligious issues sustain the partisan gap, over and abovethe conservative influence of religiosity. Findings from structuralequation analyses demonstrate that religious devotion affectsthe politics of men and women in similar ways. Religious commitmentaffects partisan choices but does not override the powerfuleffects of gender. Gender differences in support for the socialwelfare state and the preeminence of social welfare opinionin the partisan calculus of men and women largely explain thepersistence of the gender gap.