Myth and Reality: The ERA and the Gender Gap in the 1980 Election

Abstract

Attitudes toward the Equal Rights Amendment were not an important factor in the emergence of the “gender gap” in the 1980 presidential election. Conclusions to the contrary by news analysts, feminist political activists, and political scientists are based on a combination of the power of expectation, faulty analysis, and random bias in the most frequently used survey in political science.

The data analyzed herein were collected by the New York Times and CBS News and processed by the New York Times and CBS News under a grant from the Russell Sage Foundation; by Warren E. Miller and the National Election Studies of the Center for Political Studies at the University of Michigan; and by the National Opinion Research Center of the University of Chicago. The data were provided through the Interuniversity Consortium for Political and Social Research of the University of Michigan. The New York Times, CBS News, the CPS, NORC, and the ICPSR bear no responsibility for the analysis and interpretations presented here.