With all the hype about the power of women's vote this year, the complexity of individual voters like Walsh sometimes gets lost in the media frenzy. Women are by no means a monolithic voting bloc. In fact, things like race, religion, and geography can play a greater role in women's voting behavior than gender. And any politician forgets that at his or her own peril. There are areas where women are more liberal than men, and men are more conservative than women, but to say women are 'X' or men are 'Y' is a mistake.
Many pundits contend they're on the right track.
If women really vote on the issues, they'll be much more informed and invested. But studies have also found that things like race, religion, and region have much more of an effect on people's voting patterns than does gender. In fact, while women are rightly given credit for granting Bill Clinton his two victories in the 1990s, he really owes his debt to African-American women like Jetta Thomas. In 1992, she and 87 percent of black women voters cast their ballot for Clinton, compared with 41 percent of white women. In 1996, the split was 89 percent to 48 percent.