Are Female Voters Swayed by Their Daddy Issues?


1221069098John McCain is trying to woo me because I’m a white female voter. Many of my fellow Caucasian women have decided to support Barack Obama now that the economy is in a tailspin, so McCain is now talking about healthcare and homeownership in hopes of bringing us over to his side.

OK, that’s what candidates do, but what got my XX chromosomes in a bunch was this passage in the Globe (emphasis added, naturally).

[In 2004], pollsters conjured the profile of “security moms,” married women with children who made national-security issues a priority after the Sept. 11 attacks.

After this September’s financial crisis, some political analysts expect that a similar instinct – seeking a trusted paternal figure in a time of uncertainty – will apply to domestic concerns.

Here’s a thought: Women will vote on the issues. And we don’t mean their daddy issues.

Describing a competent leader as a “paternalistic figure” during an election season that almost saw the first female presidential nominee of a major party seems a bit odd. If Hillary Clinton had gotten the nod over Obama, she may have attracted just as many apprehensive voters as the Illinois senator. And the only thing paternalistic about her is her pantsuits.

So thanks, analysts. But women are going to vote for the candidate who they think can best handle the country during trying times, not the one who reminds them of their father.