Think women are more likely to vote for a presidential candidate just because she's a woman or because they think it's "time" a female took the White House?
Some data out there would not necessarily support this idea (more on this front later) and neither would a cursory look at an anonymous social network that has women revealing they wouldn't vote for Hillary Clinton simply because she is a woman.
Whisper, which is an "anonymous social network that allows people to express themselves, connect with like-minded individuals" that launched in 2012, allows people to share their thoughts "in a community built around trust and honesty."
Though Clinton might think being a women is "one of the merits" giving her an edge for the democratic nomination, some Whisper users, claiming to be women, have taken to the platform to share that they won't be showing gender solidarity for the democratic presidential candidate.
If women were to be swayed simply by gender, some Whisper users pointed out, that the former secretary of state is not the only option for a female president in 2016.
In addition to women taking to the app to say why they wouldn't vote for Clinton, when you search her name on Whisper it also turns up a host of posts in favor and against the politician. Some of these posts though take a particularly nasty tone.
Searching GOP presidential candidate Carly Fiorina to see if she received the same treatment, as a woman campaigning for the nomination, revealed that while there are far fewer posts about her on the platform, the tone overall is much more friendly than that about Clinton.
In the end though, are women more or less inclined to vote for a female candidate simply because they both are women? An article by Jody Newman, a former executive director of the National Women's Caucus, published in 1996 in the Public Perspective explained that, according to her team's research, "on average women do vote for women slightly more than men do, but that women do not automatically vote for women and do not necessarily form a solid base for women candidates."
"The extent of support a woman candidate receives from women voters will depend on the candidate, her campaign, her opponent, the composition and mood of the electorate, and the political climate," Newman continued in the article, in the University of Connecticut's Roper Center's online magazine. "Women are slightly more likely to vote for women candidates but they do not vote as a bloc; like men voters, they make their decisions based on a wide variety of factors."
(H/T: Daily Mail, AOL)
