AMERICAN WOMEN - What They Want

"What the ‘women’s vote’ means in 2016" PBS NewsHour 3/31/2016

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SUMMARY:  Women made up more than half of all voters in 2012.  What's winning over this diverse and crucial bloc of voters in 2016?  Judy Woodruff explores how women see this year’s candidates with Rebecca Traister, author, "All the Single Ladies," Ann Selzer of Selzer & Company and Kelly Dittmar of the Center for American Women and Politics.

JUDY WOODRUFF (NewsHour):  Another issue in the spotlight this week, women voters.  In 2012, they made up 53 percent of the electorate in the presidential race.

To check in on that crucial voting bloc and what is driving the thinking of women voters this year, we are joined by Rebecca Traister.  She’s a journalist and author of “All The Single Ladies: Unmarried Women and the Rise of an Independent Nation.”  Kelly Dittmar, she’s a scholar at the Center for American Women and Politics at Rutgers University.  And pollster Ann Selzer, she’s president of Selzer & Company.

And we welcome all three of you to the program.

Let me start with you, Kelly Dittmar.

Remind us, how did American women vote in the last few presidential elections?

KELLY DITTMAR, Center for American Women and Politics:  Sure.

So, there’s a persistent gender gap in terms of women’s support and presidential vote choice, where we see women more likely to vote for the Democratic candidate than their male counterparts.  So, if you just look at 2012, for example, you see that women were supporting Barack Obama at about 55 percent, and compared to men at about 45 percent, so we would call that a 10-point gender gap.

And, of course, if you sort of break that down, you see even stronger support among women of color for Barack Obama at 96 percent, for example, among black women.

JUDY WOODRUFF:  Ann Selzer, what do we see so far this year in how the women’s vote is breaking down based on the exit polls in these primaries so far?  And let’s start with the Republicans.

ANN SELZER, Selzer & Company:  Well, we’re just starting to see things really kind of coalesce here.

In terms of the primaries with Bernie Sanders and Hillary Clinton, she is leading with women.  She’s not necessarily leading with younger women.  And so that really remains her challenge as she thinks about heading into a general election.

In terms of the Republican side of this, what you have is a stronger showing by Cruz among women and a stronger showing for Trump among men.  He pretty much dominates the male vote.  It’s a two-point race between Trump and Cruz in terms of the primary vote.

"Women’s soccer players sue over wage gap" PBS NewsHour 3/31/2016

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SUMMARY:  The U.S. women’s soccer team became national heroes when they won the 2015 World Cup.  But members of the team are now suing over wage discrimination, claiming that they earned four times less than their male counterparts despite generating $20 million more in revenue.  Judy Woodruff talks to Briana Scurry, former U.S women’s goalkeeper, for more on the fight.