Conversations with Friends: How Gender and Politics in the 2024 U.S Presidential Election was Perceived by the People and by the Numbers

Abstract

The 2024 U.S. presidential election were largely unprecedented, with President Joe Biden withdrawing from the race and endorsing Vice President Kamala Harris as the Democratic Nominee mere months before election day. The events that followed were rife with opportunity to explore the intersection of gender and politics, a topic of increasing relevance as women have become more politically active over the past century. Going beyond the traditional gender gap research, which demonstrates the divergent voting patterns of women and men, this research seeks to understand how the gender of the candidate influences vote choice. Using empirical data on the gender gap, this essay confirms that gender played a role in this election quite clearly. Additionally, literature which explores previous elections suggests that a candidate’s gender also plays a role in vote choice. When examining the 2024 presidential election, the literature relies more on personal testimony, case studies, and interviews to support the same claim. This essay takes a similar approach and uses friendship as a research method, which is endorsed by feminist methodologies, to investigate the relationship between Harris’s gender and her loss in this election. It was found that according to much personal testimony, Harris did lose in part due to her gender, among other factors