According to the CNN exit poll, of the 650,000 black women who voted in Florida this year, 18% of them – roughly 117,000 – voted for Republican Ron DeSantis who was elected governor. Only 9% of them – roughly 58,500 – voted for Rick Scott, the Republican U.S. Senate candidate (who was also elected).
DeSantis’ margin of victory was roughly 34,000 votes over Democrat Andrew Gillum, a black man who was leading in pre-election polls.
So why did 58,500 more black women vote for DeSantis to provide him with the margin of victory? The answer is school choice.
More than 100,000 low-income students in Florida participate in the “Step-Up for Students” program, which grants tax-credit funded scholarships to attend private schools. Most Step-Up students are minorities whose mothers are registered Democrats.
DeSantis supported school choice and apparently Gillium opposed it.
The Democratic mothers whose students participate in the Step-Up program voted for their children. [Article by William Mattox, WSJ, 11/22/18]
“Sixty percent of women who will serve in the next Congress are Girl Scout Alums.” [USA Today]
In Nevada during the just-past election, voters abolished the tampon tax. This is the 10th state to eliminate sales tax on menstrual products. [Vox, 11/8/18]
The Subtle Stressors Making Women Want to Leave Engineering
Female retention in engineering remains a persistent problem. Even after overcoming hurdles to enter the profession, women leave at much higher rates than men, often because of the stress that comes with being female in a male-dominated field. This stress can be quite overt, like when women face instances of gender discrimination or harassment; but our research shows that it can also be subtle, like when women feel that their contributions are less valued than their male peers’ because tasks and roles have been gendered. When experienced daily, this kind of subtle stress can become depleting. [Teresa Cardador and Brianna Ceza – Harvard Business Review] [Gender Avenger Blog, 11/25/18]
A study by McKinsey & Co. and LeanIn.Org found that women and men have different perceptions of how gender factors in the workplace, with 29 percent of women saying their gender makes it harder to get a raise, promotion or career advancement compared to 15 percent of men who say their gender holds them back. Men were more likely than women to say promotions at their company are based on fair and objective criteria (50 percent of men versus 43 percent of women). Moreover, 29 percent of women said they have been addressed in a less-than-professional way compared to 14 percent of men, 32 percent of women said they had been mistaken for someone at a much lower level (10 percent of men) and 40 percent of women said they had experienced having their judgement questioned in their areas of expertise (compared to 23 percent of men). [Vanessa Fuhrmans, WSJ]