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Women as Voters xxiii that women had the potential to influence the system by using their vote to express political views that might differ from those of men voters. As women voters have emerged as significant political actors in U.S. politics, it is apparent that they have influenced the political system by expressing a diversity of political views and stances via the ballot. These multiple views can be detected in analyses of women voters’ candidate choices, partisan identities, and policy preferences. Vote Choices In 2016, 41 percent of women voters and 52 percent of men voters supported the Republican candidate for president, Donald Trump (CAWP 2017b). This difference in vote choice between women and men—an 11 percentage point difference in the case of Trump in 2016—has been evident in every presidential election since 1980. This “gap” in support between women and men is known as a gender gap in voting. A voting gender gap is defined as “a difference between the percentage of women and the percentage of men voting for a given candidate, generally the winning candidate” (CAWP 2017b, 1). A gender gap may still result even in instances when women and men voters support the same candidate, due to differ- ences in their scope of support. In the 2008 and 2004 presidential elections, the gender gap between women and men supporting the winning candidate was 7 percentage points, with more women (56%) than men (49%) supporting Democrat Barack Obama in 2008 and more men (55%) than women (48%) supporting Republican George W. Bush in 2004 (CAWP 2017b). In 2012, the gender gap grew to 10 percentage points, with 55 percent of women and 45 percent of men voting for Obama. Since 1980, the gender gap in presidential election voting has ranged between 6 and 11 percentage points (CAWP 2017b). Lynne Ford explains that the impact of the gender gap in voting relies upon the rates at which women and men turn out to vote in a single election. Because women have been turning out to vote in larger numbers and at higher rates than men in recent elections, this has made “gender gaps favoring women a determining force in the outcome of these elections” (Ford 2011, 87). Scholars have also examined whether women’s vote choices can be predicted based on the gender of the candidates. In his study of U.S. House races across seven elections (presidential and midterm elections between 1990 and 2002), Craig Brians looks at the influence of gender affinity and considers whether women will vote for women due to their shared gender. Using survey data from the National Election Study (NES), he finds general support for a “gender affinity effect” between women voters and candidates but notes that this relationship is influenced by party affiliation (Brians 2005, 368). This is illustrated by the result- ing differences between Republican women voters and Democratic women voters—Republican women voters were more likely than Democratic women voters to cross party lines and vote for a woman candidate of the opposite party (Brians 2005, 368). Kathleen Dolan expands upon the discussion of a gender affinity effect in her study of U.S. House elections from 1990 to 2000. She not only looks at the gender