Minding the Black Gender Gap: Gender Differences in Public Opinion among Black Americans

• Published date: 01 September 2021
• DOI: 10.1177/1532673X211013462
• Date: 01 September 2021
• Subject Matter: Articles

https://doi.org/10.1177/1532673X211013462

American Politics Research

2021, Vol. 49(5) 490 –503

© The Author(s) 2021

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DOI: 10.1177/1532673X211013462

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Article

The conventional wisdom in the literature on Black public

opinion has long been that racial group interests mobilize

African Americans to share similar political attitudes, values,

and policy preferences (Dawson, 1995, 2003). The underly-

ing presumption is that shared experiences of racial discrimi-

nation in the United States encourage African Americans to

employ racial concerns as a proxy for their own self interests.

As a consequence, there tends to be strong agreement among

Black citizens on a range of social issues including race-

based social policies, fiscal policy, and the role of govern-

ment. However, as has been revealed in recent studies,

the appearance of uniformity overshadows a considerable

amount of diversity within the African American community

(Greer, 2013; Smith, 2014; White & Laird, 2020; White

et al., 2014). Nevertheless, Black political and social move-

ments in the United States have typically been dominated by

cis-gendered Black men, forcing marginalized groups within

the Black community to subordinate their interests to their

broader racial concerns (Cohen, 1999).

Do Black women’s policy preferences differ from Black

men as a function of their racial, gendered, and class inter-

ests? In this paper, we examine how different policy

domains lead Black women to consider their respective

racial or gendered interests. And if gender differences in

social welfare policy positions exist, is this due to Black

women’s relative economic vulnerability compared to

Black men? Specifically, in the analysis, we explore

whether differences in preferences for social welfare are

facilitated by underlying economic disparities between

Black men and women. Employing data from the American

National Election Study (ANES) from 1980 to 2016, we

examine the policies that are more likely to activate racial

and gendered preferences among Black women. We dis-

cover that unlike affirmative action and government aid to

Blacks, which activate Black women’s racial consider-

ations, gender-oriented issues as well as social welfare poli-

cies provoke more gendered concerns. Nevertheless, the

differences in preferences on social welfare policies and—

to a lesser extent—women’s issues are mediated by income,

suggesting disparities in the economic standing of Black

women and men inform their varied support for each policy

area. Lastly, we find that Black women’s support for racial

and social welfare policies is significantly higher than that

of white women, white men and, in some cases, Black men.

This study advances the previous literature in several

ways. First, the existing literature on Black gender gaps in

public opinion does not address the role of income in

1013462APRXXX10.1177/1532673X211013462American Politics ResearchLizotte and Carey

research-article2021

1Augusta University, Augusta, USA

2University of North Texas, Denton, USA

Corresponding Author:

Mary Kate Lizotte, Augusta University, 1120 15th Street, Augusta,

GA 30904-4562, USA.

Email: mlizotte@augusta.edu

Minding the Black Gender Gap: Gender

Differences in Public Opinion among

Black Americans

Mary Kate Lizotte1 and Tony E. Carey Jr.2

Abstract

There is little research examining the gender gap in public opinion among Americans of African descent. Amid emerging

evidence that Black men are more conservative than Black women, there is reason to believe there may be gender differences

in their policy preferences. We use the 1980-2016 cumulative ANES data to observe when racial and gender considerations

will be more salient for Black women in determining their policy preferences. We find no gender gap on race-based policies

suggesting racial group interests may be driving similar support among Black men and women. We do find gender differences

on women’s issues and social welfare policies. We attribute Black women’s support for women’s issues to their gendered

interests and demonstrate the gap in social welfare attitudes is mediated by their lower economic status relative to Black

men. Despite these differences, we discover that Black men and women support race-oriented and social welfare policies

more than either white men or women.

Keywords

gender gap, Black public opinion, race gap